scholarly journals Wheezing Sound Separation Based on Informed Inter-Segment Non-Negative Matrix Partial Co-Factorization

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 2679
Author(s):  
Juan De La Torre Cruz ◽  
Francisco Jesús Cañadas Quesada ◽  
Nicolás Ruiz Reyes ◽  
Pedro Vera Candeas ◽  
Julio José Carabias Orti
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Signal Reconstruction ◽  
Respiratory Sounds ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Respiratory Disorder ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Sound Separation

Wheezing reveals important cues that can be useful in alerting about respiratory disorders, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Early detection of wheezing through auscultation will allow the physician to be aware of the existence of the respiratory disorder in its early stage, thus minimizing the damage the disorder can cause to the subject, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. The proposed method presents an extended version of Non-negative Matrix Partial Co-Factorization (NMPCF) that eliminates most of the acoustic interference caused by normal respiratory sounds while preserving the wheezing content needed by the physician to make a reliable diagnosis of the subject’s airway status. This extension, called Informed Inter-Segment NMPCF (IIS-NMPCF), attempts to overcome the drawback of the conventional NMPCF that treats all segments of the spectrogram equally, adding greater importance for signal reconstruction of repetitive sound events to those segments where wheezing sounds have not been detected. Specifically, IIS-NMPCF is based on a bases sharing process in which inter-segment information, informed by a wheezing detection system, is incorporated into the factorization to reconstruct a more accurate modelling of normal respiratory sounds. Results demonstrate the significant improvement obtained in the wheezing sound quality by IIS-NMPCF compared to the conventional NMPCF for all the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) scenarios evaluated, specifically, an SDR, SIR and SAR improvement equals 5.8 dB, 4.9 dB and 7.5 dB evaluating a noisy scenario with SNR = −5 dB.

scholarly journals Early detection of diabetic retinopathy based on deep learning and ultra-wide-field fundus images

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kangrok Oh ◽  
Hae Min Kang ◽  
Dawoon Leem ◽  
Hyungyu Lee ◽  
Kyoung Yul Seo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diabetic Retinopathy ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Fundus Photography ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Automated Screening

AbstractVisually impaired and blind people due to diabetic retinopathy were 2.6 million in 2015 and estimated to be 3.2 million in 2020 globally. Though the incidence of diabetic retinopathy is expected to decrease for high-income countries, detection and treatment of it in the early stages are crucial for low-income and middle-income countries. Due to the recent advancement of deep learning technologies, researchers showed that automated screening and grading of diabetic retinopathy are efficient in saving time and workforce. However, most automatic systems utilize conventional fundus photography, despite ultra-wide-field fundus photography provides up to 82% of the retinal surface. In this study, we present a diabetic retinopathy detection system based on ultra-wide-field fundus photography and deep learning. In experiments, we show that the use of early treatment diabetic retinopathy study 7-standard field image extracted from ultra-wide-field fundus photography outperforms that of the optic disc and macula centered image in a statistical sense.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-56
Author(s):  
Craig M. Riley ◽  
Jessica Bon ◽  
Alison Morris
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Asthma Prevalence ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Potential Risk Factors

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma are highly prevalent, non-malignant respiratory conditions that have increased dramatically in the past half century, both in high-income and low-middle-income countries. COPD is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide, and both COPD and asthma have a profound impact on quality of life for patients and their families. Tobacco smoke remains the single most important cause of COPD, but occupational and indoor exposures have increasingly been recognized as risk factors, especially among middle- and low-income individuals. Different patterns of genetic susceptibility independent of exposure result in variability of disease expression with many patients not developing clinical COPD, although they may still develop respiratory symptoms. COPD prevalence differs greatly between countries even when controlling for smoking rates. While much progress has been made in understanding biological pathways involved in asthma, the understanding of why asthma initially develops remains elusive. Although a large number of potential risk factors have been identified, none can explain the global increases in asthma prevalence observed over the last few decades. Prevalence trends between countries have also varied, with some countries continuing to experience increases in asthma rates and some rates levelling off or even declining. These trends cannot be explained by divergent epidemiological methods or population makeup alone. Asthma control, especially for severe asthmatics and for those with non-allergic phenotypes, remains a public health problem with more efficient interventions needed to encourage smoking cessation, improve air quality, and reduce allergen exposure.

scholarly journals Designing and implementing an integrated non-communicable disease primary care intervention in rural Nepal

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. e001343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anirudh Kumar ◽  
Dan Schwarz ◽  
Bibhav Acharya ◽  
Pawan Agrawal ◽  
Anu Aryal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Non Communicable Disease

Low-income and middle-income countries are struggling with a growing epidemic of non-communicable diseases. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, their healthcare systems need to be strengthened and redesigned. The Starfield 4Cs of primary care—first-contact access, care coordination, comprehensiveness and continuity—offer practical, high-quality design options for non-communicable disease care in low-income and middle-income countries. We describe an integrated non-communicable disease intervention in rural Nepal using the 4C principles. We present 18 months of retrospective assessment of implementation for patients with type II diabetes, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We assessed feasibility using facility and community follow-up as proxy measures, and assessed effectiveness using singular ‘at-goal’ metrics for each condition. The median follow-up for diabetes, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was 6, 6 and 7 facility visits, and 10, 10 and 11 community visits, respectively (0.9 monthly patient touch-points). Loss-to-follow-up rates were 16%, 19% and 22%, respectively. The median time between visits was approximately 2 months for facility visits and 1 month for community visits. ‘At-goal’ status for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease improved from baseline to endline (p=0.01), but not for diabetes or hypertension. This is the first integrated non-communicable disease intervention, based on the 4C principles, in Nepal. Our experience demonstrates high rates of facility and community follow-up, with comparatively low lost-to-follow-up rates. The mixed effectiveness results suggest that while this intervention may be valuable, it may not be sufficient to impact outcomes. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, further implementation research is urgently needed to determine how to optimise non-communicable disease interventions.

scholarly journals Orthogonality-Constrained CNMF-Based Noise Reduction with Reduced Degradation of Biological Sound

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (23) ◽  
pp. 7981
Author(s):  
Naoto Murakami ◽  
Shota Nakashima ◽  
Katsuma Fujimoto ◽  
Shoya Makihira ◽  
Seiji Nishifuji ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Noise Reduction ◽  
Reduction Method ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Respiratory Sounds ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Noisy Environments ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Orthogonality Constraints ◽  
Average Improvement ◽  
Slow Progression

The number of deaths due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases is increasing annually. Cardiovascular diseases with high mortality rates, such as strokes, are frequently caused by atrial fibrillation without subjective symptoms. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is another condition in which early detection is difficult owing to the slow progression of the disease. Hence, a device that enables the early diagnosis of both diseases is necessary. In our previous study, a sensor for monitoring biological sounds such as vascular and respiratory sounds was developed and a noise reduction method based on semi-supervised convolutive non-negative matrix factorization (SCNMF) was proposed for the noisy environments of users. However, SCNMF attenuated part of the biological sound in addition to the noise. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel noise reduction method that achieves less distortion by imposing orthogonality constraints on the SCNMF. The effectiveness of the proposed method was verified experimentally using the biological sounds of 21 subjects. The experimental results showed an average improvement of 1.4 dB in the signal-to-noise ratio and 2.1 dB in the signal-to-distortion ratio over the conventional method. These results demonstrate the capability of the proposed approach to measure biological sounds even in noisy environments.

scholarly journals Previous tuberculosis disease as a risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a cross-sectional analysis of multicountry, population-based studies

Thorax ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. thoraxjnl-2020-216500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Kamenar ◽  
Shakir Hossen ◽  
Akshay N Gupte ◽  
Trishul Siddharthan ◽  
Suzanne Pollard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Lung Function ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Forced Expiratory Volume ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Tuberculosis Disease

BackgroundRisk factors for COPD in high-income settings are well understood; however, less attention has been paid to contributors of COPD in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as pulmonary tuberculosis. We sought to study the association between previous tuberculosis disease and COPD by using pooled population-based cross-sectional data in 13 geographically diverse, low-resource settings.MethodsWe pooled six cohorts in 13 different LMIC settings, 6 countries and 3 continents to study the relationship between self-reported previous tuberculosis disease and lung function outcomes including COPD (defined as a postbronchodilator forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) below the lower limit of normal). Multivariable regressions with random effects were used to examine the association between previous tuberculosis disease and lung function outcomes.ResultsWe analysed data for 12 396 participants (median age 54.0 years, 51.5% male); 332 (2.7%) of the participants had previous tuberculosis disease. Overall prevalence of COPD was 8.8% (range 1.7%–15.5% across sites). COPD was four times more common among those with previous tuberculosis disease (25.7% vs 8.3% without previous tuberculosis disease, p<0.001). The adjusted odds of having COPD was 3.78 times higher (95% CI 2.87 to 4.98) for participants with previous tuberculosis disease than those without a history of tuberculosis disease. The attributable fraction of COPD due to previous tuberculosis disease in the study sample was 6.9% (95% CI 4.8% to 9.6%). Participants with previous tuberculosis disease also had lower prebronchodilator Z-scores for FEV1 (−0.70, 95% CI −0.84 to −0.55), FVC (−0.44, 95% CI −0.59 to −0.29) and the FEV1:FVC ratio (−0.63, 95% CI −0.76 to −0.51) when compared with those without previous tuberculosis disease.ConclusionsPrevious tuberculosis disease is a significant and under-recognised risk factor for COPD and poor lung function in LMICs. Better tuberculosis control will also likely reduce the global burden of COPD.

Abdominal Textiloma Mimicking as Left Colic Tumour: A Postoperative Complication Still Common in Low-Income Countries

EMJ Radiology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Fistula Formation ◽  
Emergency Laparotomy ◽  
Intermittent Fever ◽  
Gastrointestinal Complications ◽  
Surgical Safety ◽  
Surgical Teams ◽  
Safety Rules

Retained foreign bodies have become very rare in countries where the safety rules in the operating theatre are very rigorous and follow precise guidelines. There are low-income countries where hospital structures are precarious, in which the implementation of surgical safety rules has only been effective recently. Surgical teams in these countries are not yet well trained in the observance of the guidelines concerning swab count, meaning that textilomas are not uncommon. Abdominal textiloma may be asymptomatic, or present serious gastrointestinal complications such as bowel obstruction, perforation, or fistula formation because of misdiagnosis. It may mimic abscess formation in the early stage or soft tissue masses in the chronic stage. This case report presents a 27-year-old female who underwent an emergency laparotomy in a rural surgical centre for an ectopic pregnancy. Two months later, a swelling had appeared on the left side of her abdomen, gradually increasing in size, which was not very painful but caused digestive discomfort and asthenia. Intermittent fever was described and treated with antibiotics. The patient was referred to a better equipped centre to benefit from a CT scan. A textiloma was strongly suspected on the CT but a left colic mass was not excluded. Laparotomy confirmed the diagnosis of textiloma and the postoperative course was uneventful. Prevention rules must be strengthened in these countries where patients can hardly bear the costs of iterative surgeries for complications that are avoidable.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document