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R Lötscher

Publications and source records attributed to R Lötscher.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

[Pilot project smoke-free workplace].

In 1991 SAN had acquired wide experience with firms which had introduced rules about smoking, governing where and when smoking is permitted at the workplace. A dossier was produced, based on this expertise, with the title: "Smoke-free Workplaces". A pilot project, taking Zurich as a model, was intended to demonstrate how health-promoting measures could be successfully put into effect in the context of smoking. The results of experimentation with six different, interlocking measures were collated, and evaluated with a view to their implementation throughout the whole of Switzerland. The basic components covered the three areas of Information, Raising Awareness, and Motivation, and focussed particularly on the following six points: Information materials; text/cartoons for internal company PR use; bids to wean people off smoking; the "5-day-campaign" (a communication game, 5 min. a day); an information event raising the interest of the personnel on to a wide range of possibilities: Information, experience the reactions of your body on tobacco-smoke, expositions, opinion-walls. And sixth: advice on strategy for employers and personnel managers.

Audiovisual Aids↗

The significance of morphometric methods in cytologic diagnostics: differentiation between mesothelial cells, mesothelioma cells and metastatic adenocarcinoma cells in pleural effusions with special emphasis on chromatin texture.

Opinions differ widely as to the value of morphometric techniques for differentiating between mesothelial cells, mesothelioma cells and metastatic adenocarcinoma cells in pleural effusions. The significance of the changes in the chromatin structure to differentiate between these three cell types was stressed by various scientific groups only qualitatively, and until now no group has used digital methods to quantify chromatin structures. The controversy about the value of morphometric methods was the reason for conducting the following study. We wanted to investigate (i) the importance of various planimetric and texture parameters as well as invariant moments as morphometric discriminators; and (ii) to set up a data structure to make possible the further diagnostic use of the multivariate morphometric analyses method for other applications. The present findings show that nuclear size and form are not the decisive factors in differentiating between reactive cells and mesothelioma cells, but pixel related texture parameters and invariant moments are. All parameter types used showed differences between reactive cells and cells of adenocarcinoma metastases. Invariant moments and shape descriptors, but not texture parameters are used to discriminate between mesothelioma cells and cells of adenocarcinoma metastases.

Adenocarcinoma↗

Digital image analysis in cytological diagnosis: a morphometric analysis on pleural mesotheliomas.

In the course of the last years digital image analysis has become increasingly important in the field of quantitative pathology. This may be due to the technical development of computers which have now reached a high user-friendly standard. In the present paper we present: (1) the development of a simple system for the measurement of digital image analysis; (2) the development of a general data structure applicable to various measurements and classification strategies; and (3) the analysis of the value of invariant moments (IM) as regional descriptors to distinguish mesothelial cells from mesothelioma cells in cytologic smears of pleural fluid. The results show that the invariant moments contain information concerning the geometric distribution of the grey values of the pixels as well as the staining intensity. The invariant moments present combination parameters and are therefore ideal morphometric parameters. With the invariant moments 7 out of 7 patients with mesotheliomas and 8 out of 11 control subjects could be assigned correctly in a nonparametric discriminant analysis procedure.

Cell Nucleus↗