S Serpico | PubMed Health

PubMed1982

[Digital radiography].

The reliability of radiographical information may be improved by a) standardised radiography (exposure-development); b) transformation of the original image into a densitometric image and equalization with a reference wedge made of Ergal. The linear absorption coefficient of Ergal in terms of photon X energy is almost identical to the average coefficient of the bone mineral matrix; c) processing the densitometric image for additional information. An automatic image analyser controlled by a computer is used. The first osteological results showing the correspondence between the densitometric measurements provided by the analyser and the actual bone mineral content revealed by chemical analysis are presented.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Chest pain similar to angina. Identification of patients at risk of developing acute coronary failure].

In order to improve the diagnostic procedure for patients with chest pain suspected of having acute ischemic heart disease we elaborated a mathematical model to predict ischemic risk and then compared its predictive capacity with that of the physician. From September 1989 to December 1992, 564 patients with a chief symptom of chest pain were seen at our Emergency Room (ER). Sixty-two percent of them were male, mean age was 58 +/- 13 years, and none had acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina. Clinical and historical data, serial sampling of enzymes and ECG patterns were collected for 4 hours after admission to the ER. At that point a decision was made to hospitalize or discharge that patient. Follow-up was completed within 2 months. At the end of follow-up, we observed that the physician's assessment resulted in 35% true positive, 55% true negative, 4.7% false positive, and 5.3% false negative judgments for acute ischemic heart disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Acute Disease↗