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Biomedical subjects

D Rockey

Publications and source records attributed to D Rockey.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

Hepatobiliary infections.

Major hepatobiliary infections include cholangitis and liver abscess. Liver abscess is typically either of pyogenic or amebic origin. Amebic liver abscess usually occurs in individuals from endemic areas or those traveling to endemic areas and is associated with an excellent prognosis if properly managed, usually with one of several antiamebicidal drugs alone. Pyogenic liver abscess is most often cryptogenic in origin, although sophisticated advanced interventional procedures such as transarterial embolization and cryoablation are leading to a new generation of patients with pyogenic liver abscess. A distinct clinical entity appears to be evolving, namely that of monomicrobial Klebsiella pneumoniae pyogenic liver abscess, characterized by the same symptoms and signs as classic pyogenic liver abscess, but further distinguished by the presence of diabetes mellitus, a paucity of coexistent intra-abdominal pathology, a single cavity, and an excellent prognosis. As of 1999, the vast majority of pyogenic liver abscesses should be approached therapeutically by percutaneous aspiration or drainage techniques. The overall prognosis for patients with pyogenic liver abscess is improving, although poor outcomes are common in patients with serious underlying medical disorders, especially malignancy.

Journal Article↗

Radiology image interpretation system: modified observer performance study of an image interpretation expert system.

Application of computer-based expert systems to diagnostic medical problems has been described in many areas including clinical diagnosis and radiology. Expert systems are computer programs that contain encoded expert knowledge to provide expert advice. A modified observer-performance study was done comparing the efficacy of the Radiology Image Interpretation System (RIIS), an expert system that diagnoses focal bone abnormalities, and radiology residents on a known set of 44 abnormal and 10 normal cases. Modified receiver operating characteristic curves for four inexperienced residents, five experienced residents, and RIIS were generated using the set of known radiographs. The true-positive rates of RIIS and the residents at false-positive rates of 0.05, 0.15, and 0.20 were estimated using the modified receiver operating characteristics curve and were compared using a paired t test. On the average, the RIIS system was less accurate when compared with experienced and inexperienced residents but the difference was only significant for experienced residents at a false-positive rate of 0.05. RIIS performed better than inexperienced residents when RIIS was used by experienced residents but this difference was not significant.

Bone Diseases↗

Problems in applying expert system technology to radiographic image interpretation.

A prototype expert system was developed to study the problems applying expert system technology to radiographic image interpretation. The Radiographic Image Interpretation System (RIIS) was developed on a microcomputer using Turbo Prolog, a low cost implementation of the prolog programming language. The present implementation of RIIS was developed to highlight potential problems in applying expert system technology in the evaluation of radiographic images. It was believed that the evaluation of this prototype expert system should include a large number of users unfamiliar with the program's use as this would probably be the case in clinical use of an image interpretation expert system. At present, the expert system deals with a limited domain of focal bony lesions. Twenty cases of pathologically proven bony lesions of varying difficulty were used to evaluate potential problems in the use of this expert system technology. RIIS, with the 20 sample cases, was presented as an exhibit at the 1987 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) meeting to evaluate the potential problems with inexperienced users. These results were compared with those of experienced users. When a musculoskeletal radiologist, familiar with the programs use, provided the "proper description," the program averaged the correct diagnosis in the top five 80% of the time. During the program's use at the RSNA meeting, the program selected the correct diagnosis in the top five 22% of the time.

Bone Neoplasms↗

Medieval arabic views on speech disorders: al-Razi (c. 865--925).

This paper discusses al-Razi's views on speech defects of lingual origin. It begins with a background sketch of the man, his times, and his major work, with its various translations. There follows translated extracts and analysis from his section on the causes and treatment of speech defects, seen in the light of the humoral theory of disease. Information is derived from the recently published Arabic version of Rzi's al-Hawi, which reveals that diagnosis was more advanced than is indicated in the Latin translations, which have been the principal source of reference in the West to date.

Adult↗