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PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of maternal antibody on timing of initial vaccination of young white leghorn chickens against infectious bursal disease virus.

Maternal antibody titers in white leghorn chicks against infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) were measured by a computer-assisted, single-serum-dilution, indirect kinetic-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (KELISA) and by a virus-neutralization (VN) test in order to predict the timing of initial vaccination. Day-old white leghorns were from unvaccinated pullets or from pullets vaccinated either four times or twice with IBDV commercial vaccines. The chicks were immunized once via the drinking water with a commercial "intermediate" live IBDV vaccine at 1, 15, or 28 days of age. Effective initial immunization was confirmed by an increase in antibody to IBDV (serologic conversion) that occurred when maternal antibody decreased to 8 and 9 on a log2 scale. This concentration of antibody was detected between 24 and 28 days of age. The computer-assisted IBDV-KELISA increased the sample processing speed for detecting IBDV antibody, and it was as sensitive as the VN test for predicting the timing of initial IBDV vaccination.

Animals↗

PubMed1987

The physician data query (PDQ) cancer information system.

PDQ is an online database that provides information about the prognosis and treatment of all major types of cancer. It represents a major effort by the NCI to communicate advances in cancer treatment using computer technology, and serves as a major component of the Institute's program to reduce cancer mortality nationwide. PDQ utilizes a modern large-scale computer to provide processing speed, a general purpose database management system to provide retrieval and display functions, and commercial telecommunication networks to provide online access to up-to-date information on cancer treatment. A series of user-friendly menus allow searching, browsing, and displaying without having to learn a specialized search language. PDQ is accessible through the National Library of Medicine's computer system via a computer terminal or personal computer and is available to the medical community at over 6,000 medical libraries and centers and through individual access codes. PDQ is also available as an online database under a special license agreement with NCI through two medical information systems produced by commercial database vendors: BRS/Saunders' COLLEAGUE Mead Data Central's MEDIS, and Telmed, a Swiss database.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗

PubMed1985

The Edinburgh-Helsinki study: a comparison of dental care for children.

A comparison was undertaken of dental care for children in Edinburgh and Helsinki. The evaluation centred upon an epidemiological investigation of the dental health of children in the 5-, 12- and 15-year age groups. This was performed by examiners using standardized procedures who were drawn from both countries. They employed an established system of data recording and processing (SPEED). Using these data, and background information from official and other sources, an assessment was made of the effectiveness, adequacy, efficiency and appropriateness of the services. Children's dental health, particularly in the youngest age group, was generally better in Helsinki than in Edinburgh as were both the population coverage and extent to which disease was controlled. However, the services in Edinburgh were marginally the more economically efficient. This arose from their being provided mainly by independent contractors working under a fee per item of service rather than by a public salaried system. In neither city was the delivery of dental services supplemented by water fluoridation nor was extensive use made of auxiliary personnel. The decrease in caries prevalence in recent years has profound implications for the dental services in both countries. It calls for continuing re-appraisal of present policies on expenditure, manpower, dental education and ways of delivering dental care.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1973

Feasibility of computer screening of blood films for the detection of malaria parasites.

This paper considers the feasibility of automatic screening procedures for detecting malaria parasites in blood smears prepared in the field. A simple programme for pattern recognition by computer has been developed for thin blood films that identifies parasites as densely stained particles within an erythrocyte. The parasites are detected correctly, but platelets falling accidentally within the outline of an erythrocyte and perhaps reticulocytes may be wrongly classified as parasites. The results indicate that automated detection of parasites is technically feasible but that the technique needs to be refined to reduce the incidence of false positives. A substantial increase in processing speed is required if the automatic procedure is to be economically feasible in screening programmes. The complexity of the equipment and the need for well prepared blood smears point to a possible use of the technique in laboratory checks but not under usual field conditions.

Bacteriological Techniques↗

PubMed1981

Analysis of dietary data; an interactive computer method for storage and retrieval.

The authors briefly review some problems encountered in collecting and interpreting dietary data and in analyzing them by hand and by computer methods. The use of computers, meant to speed processing, has often delayed processing or merely replaced computation time with coding time. The authors describe a simplified nutrient data base and an interactive retrieval method, Quick Input of Food, which has been developed for direct use by nutritionists with their clients.

Computers↗

PubMed1995

Nonspecific leukoencephalopathy associated with aging.

With advancing age, the periventricular and subcortical white matter becomes susceptible to a heterogeneous assortment of tissue alterations that cannot be easily categorized in terms of traditionally defined neuropathologic disease. These alterations, which appear radiolucent on CT and hyperintense on T2-weighted MR imaging, are more common in patients with chronic hypertension and perhaps other microvascular arteriosclerotic risk factors. Examination of the affected tissue reveals a spectrum of histologic change that is graded with respect to pathologic severity. The majority of the alterations are of low histopathologic grade and exert minimal clinical effects. Frequently observed microscopic changes include dilated perivascular (Virchow-Robin) spaces, mild demyelination, gliosis, and diffuse regions neuropil vacuolation. Associated clinical abnormalities, when present, are usually confined to deficits of attention, mental processing speed, and psychomotor control. These deficits may often be demonstrable only through neuropsychologic testing. There is some evidence that the cognitive symptoms of AD may be exacerbated by the concomitant presence of these white matter alterations, but an etiologic link between AD and radiographically detectible white matter changes remains speculative. Occasionally, histologically severe white matter lesions may occur that result in dementia and focal neurologic impairment. These lesions are characterized by extensive arteriosclerosis, diffuse white matter necrosis, and lacunar infarction; affected patients may receive a diagnosis of Binswanger's disease or subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy. Nevertheless, severe ischemic white matter pathology of this type is uncommon as an explanation for serious neurologic dysfunction, and clinicians must carefully weigh other categories of neuropathology before making a diagnosis of Binswanger's disease. Alternative diagnostic considerations include neurodegenerative illnesses such as AD, cerebral infarction, neoplasm, and other forms of white matter pathology such as those due to infection, inflammation, a primary demyelinative condition, or metabolic leukodystrophy.

Aged↗

PubMed1994

Cognitive effects of Lyme disease in children.

OBJECTIVE: To measure possible cognitive sequelae of Lyme disease (LD) within a pediatric population. DESIGN: Prospective, blinded, controlled study of cognitive skills in children who had been treated for LD. SETTING: A children's hospital in an area endemic for LD. PATIENTS: Forty-one children with strictly defined LD were compared with 14 control children who had subacute rheumatological diseases, and with 23 healthy sibling controls. OUTCOME MEASURES: Neuropsychologic measures were administered to each child to assess the following cognitive areas: IQ information processing speed, fine-motor dexterity, novel-problem solving and executive functioning, short-term and intermediate memory, and the ability to acquire new learning. Predisease and postdisease academic achievement test scores were also gathered. Impressions from parents concerning the disease's subsequent impact were also obtained. RESULTS: No differences between LD and control groups were found for any of the numerous neuropsychologic measures. Analyses also failed to show differences between LD patients grouped with respect to the presence or absence of known neurologic involvement, disease stage, duration of symptoms before therapy, or type of antibiotic treatment. No predisease versus post-disease difference in academic performance was found. No perceived long-term deterioration in cognitive, social, or personality areas was reported by parents. CONCLUSION: Children appropriately treated for LD have an excellent prognosis for unimpaired cognitive functioning.

Achievement↗

PubMed1993

A real-time multi-processor 3-D echocardiographic reconstruction system.

Real-time imaging systems involve high speed processing for a variety of algorithms. An important timing constraint in the design of a real-time reconstruction system is that each individual step must be performed at video-rate. We seek to develop a real-time system for 3-D reconstruction of cardiac structures from successive 2-D B-scan ultrasound images acquired using the Tilt Echo technique, developed by Buckey et al. This system will be used to evaluate cardiac performance parameters such as stroke volume and ventricular mass.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1993

[Neuropsychological investigation in multiple sclerosis].

We studied neuropsychological performance in 10 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Neuropsychological test batteries consisted of Mini-Mental State Examination, Digist Span, Paired Associate Learning Test (PAL), Benton Visual Retention Test, Kohs Block-Design Test, Digit Symbol Subtest in WAIS, 'Kanahiroi" Test, Verbal Fluency and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. In accordance with cerebral lesions on MRI, patients were divided into three groups. A: Multiple-confluent lesions, B: Discrete lesions, C: No lesion. In MS patients as a whole, performance of PAL, "Kanahiroi" Test and Verbal Fluency were significantly impaired compared with 10 age and education matched normal controls (p < 0.05), while other tests were not. In four out of five patients of A group, more than four neuropsychological tests showed below mean -2SD score of normal controls, whereas in patients of B and C group, less than three neuropsychological tests showed below -2SD score of normal controls. In conclusion, severity of cognitive impairment in patients with MS correlated with lesion extent on MRI. Patients with MS exhibited significant cognitive impairment on tasks of recent memory and mental processing speed. It is suggested that MS patients show the features of subcortical dementia.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[The Free Trade Agreement and environmental health in Mexico].

This work offers an overview of the state of the art and future state of environmental health in our country from a viewpoint of the impact of the commercial opening established in the Free Trade Agreement among Mexico, the USA, and Canada. In the first section of this work, we analyze the expected economic changes resulting from the implementation of the FTA and foretells the way in which those changes will influence the present environmental and epidemiologic profiles of this country in the medium and long term. The main changes predicted by the analysis are, in the epidemiologic context, the acceleration of the transference of occupational, consumption, environmental and population risks, characteristic of industrialized countries, to the country's polarized epidemiologic profile; and, in the environmental context, a transition consisting of a broadening and composition of the spectrum of pollutants, including and important lagging of bacteriologic control. The second section offers an analysis of the predicted response capacity facing the new environmental risk dynamics in the country, encompassing regulation, normativeness and enforcement of environmental and consumer protection, as well as obstacles found in health services to the implementation of surveillance, detection and treatment of health damages caused by environmental factors. The analysis of the organized social response to these problems discloses a relative flexibility of the normativeness and enforcement functions in comparison with our northern neighbors, a paramount factor for the possible transference of environmental risks, as well as the informational and research deficiency about environmental issues, basic elements for sustaining environmental health in the country, aiming at speeding up the development and transference of technologies for prevention, detection and management of environmental risks in the country, drawing upon the systematization of our experience and that of our neighbors. This speeding process ought to match, in the medium term, the velocity of risk transference produced by the commercial opening. In this way, the commercial integration of North America will become a favorable context for the development of the environmental health infrastructure of the country.

Canada↗

PubMed1995

A desk top computer program for visualized statistical analysis of lesional images in intracerebral hemorrhage.

Statistically identified information on the relationships between the sites of lesions in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), risk factors such as a smoking or drinking habit, anamnesis, and biochemical data through blood tests will extend assistance to neuromedical clinicians on their daily clinical duties. It will provide them with a useful guide to determine the method of treatment. Also, it will be a basic research material for their clinical studies on diagnosis, progress, or prognosis in ICH. In order to obtain such statistics with the help of the computer, we need to have a computationally effective image database system. As is generally known, medical image data especially requires a great amount of storage; high-speed processing techniques are therefore also needed to deal with such data effectively. In addition, it is desired that we have outputs from the analysis edited with well-visualized effect, using 3D computer graphics, etc. These are why most existing image processing systems have been designed to work on comparatively large-scale computers. So far as we know, it is hard to find a practical and inexpensive personal computer-based application system for visualized statistical analysis of lesional images in ICH. We have developed a desk top computer-based program for statistical analysis of lesional image data of ICH. With this system, we can organize a medical image database that consists of the personal data of patients with ICH (sex, age, occupation, diagnosis, symptoms, part of physical disorder, etc.), risk factors, anamnesis (cerebral apoplexy, hypertension, hypotension, corpulence, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, atrial fibrillation, valvular endocarditis, etc.), biochemical data of blood, and lesional image data from CT or MRI. This system consists of the following components: 1) database management, 2) information retrieval (IR), 3) lesional image processing, 4) statistical analysis, and 5) prognostic prediction. The images are drawn manually on prescribed data sheets by tracing CT or MRI films and are read through the image scanner; then the compressed data of the digitized images is recorded in the database. Each recorded image data consists of the following two components: the frame image that corresponds to the contour of tissues of interest on the corresponding sliced section, and the actual image that corresponds to the lesion itself. In our system, these two images are separately stored and managed so that we can effectively perform subsequent image analysis. Other variables in the database (risk factors, anamnesis, etc.) are mainly used as search keys for making the aggregate of image data by the IR subsystem. In any aggregate, its elements, namely image data, have common medical background descriptions with the search keys. These aggregates can be used as input for the lesional image processing subsystem. With this subsystem, we can obtain the accumulated distribution of frequencies within a specified range of any sliced section, display planar color maps and profiles associated with the distribution, reconstruct it in 3D form, perform transformations of 3D images (zooming, enhancement, rotation, etc.), and test the significant difference of frequencies between any two different sites. We have been making practical use of this system to find the neurological relationship between the symptom (dysarthria, and paralysis of upper/lower limbs) and the site of lesion with cerebral infarction in pons. This study is quite important since the distributions of pyramidal tract related to the above symptom in pons are not well-known compared to those in cerebral cortex, internal capsule, or cerebral peduncle. With our system, we have obtained several findings expected to be helpful for this study. However, since this study is still in the initial phases, we will only present the outcome as a working example of our system. Our system was originally developed for analyzing lesional images with ICH. However, it could

Cerebral Hemorrhage↗

PubMed1997

Neuropsychological function in patients with Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease from the Indiana kindred (F198S).

Three patients with Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS) caused by a serine-for-phenylalanine substitution at codon 198 of the prion protein gene (PRNP) were compared to 9 age- and education-matched non-mutation-carriers from the same large Indiana kindred (GSS-IK) on a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. Clinically significant impairments in intelligence, secondary memory, attention and cognitive processing speed, executive ability, and manual motor skills were noted in 2 patients. The wide range and the severity of the cognitive deficits indicated generalized cerebral dysfunction consistent with global dementia. One patient, symptomatic for less than 1 year, had more selective deficits involving memory, motor skills, and verbal fluency, suggesting early subcortical involvement.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

[Functional, neuropsychological and social outcome of polytrauma patients with severe craniocerebral trauma].

The aim of this study was to identify, in (pre-) clinically obtained data, parameters predicting the outcome of patients with multiple trauma and severe head injury. Fifty-eight patients aged 27 +/- 10 years were investigated an average of 5.8 years after the accident. The Hanover Polytrauma Score was 34 +/- 11 points, the initially assessed Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was 6.2 +/- 3.2 points; and the duration of coma was 15.4 +/- 14.4 days. The primary length of stay in hospital averaged 33.4 days, including 22.9 days in the intensive care unit and 20.2 days of ventilation. For a further 223 days the patients were treated at the Neurologic Clinic of Hessisch Oldendorf. Besides different neurologic deficiency symptoms, the psychometric tests showed deficits in all areas. In particular, information processing speed, concentration, recent memory and learning performance were impaired. There was free mobility of all joints in 33% of the patients. Due to injury the elbow and ankle joint developed the worst restriction. Central paralysis and heterotopic ossification also caused a restriction in joint mobility. Half of the patients were confronted with different social changes. The rate of return to work was dependent on age. Some 42% of all patients had taken up their former profession, 5% were still in training or at college, 32% were retrained to other professions, 16% were unemployed and 5% were completely retired on pension. Age, injury severity, GCS, duration of coma and duration of weaning were suitable predictors in correlation- and regression analysis. The Glasgow Outcome Scale showed good recovery and moderate disability in 53%, severe disability in 33% and persistent vegetative state in 14% of the patients.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1998

Neuropsychological deficits in adolescents with fetal alcohol syndrome: clinical findings.

Understanding the nature of cognitive deficits among adolescent patients with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) can direct future research on assessment and intervention. In an exploratory study, nine nonretarded teenagers with FAS were administered tests of IQ and adaptive behavior, and neuropsychological tests presumed sensitive to alcohol effects. Their performance was compared with psychometric norms and to data from a sample of 174 adolescents with minimal or no prenatal alcohol exposure. These nonretarded FAS patients commonly showed behavior problems, decreased social competence, and poor school performance. Neuropsychological testing revealed significant deficits, although no one neuropsychological profile characterized all patients and not all tests revealed problems. Relatively intact performance was observed in procedural memory, some measures of reaction time, and some reading measures. Deficits were seen on attentional and memory tasks tapping visual-spatial skills, short-term auditory attention and memory, declarative learning, and cognitive flexibility and planning. Difficulties in processing speed and accuracy were also seen. Comparison with a subgroup of 52 nonalcohol-exposed or minimally alcohol-exposed adolescents with a similar range of IQ scores demonstrated that deficits among these FAS patients were not fully explained by a general lowering of IQ.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Speed of visual processing increases with eccentricity.

The visual system has a duplex design to meet conflicting environmental demands: the fovea has the resolution required to process fine spatial information, but the periphery is more sensitive to temporal properties. To investigate whether the periphery's sensitivity is partly due to the speed with which information is processed, we measured the full timecourse of visual information processing by deriving joint measures of discriminability and speed, and found that speed of information processing varies with eccentricity: processing was faster when same-size stimuli appeared at 9 degrees than 4 degrees eccentricity, and this difference was attenuated when the 9 degrees stimuli were magnified to equate cortical representation size. At the same eccentricity, larger stimuli are processed more slowly. These temporal differences are greater than expected from neurophysiological constraints.

Differential Threshold↗

PubMed1981

Impaired speed of information processing in nonmedicated schizotypal patients.

There is increasing evidence that schizophrenia is associated with an attentional or information processing deficit or both. These "early deficit" theories challenge the position that schizophrenia is primarily a disorder of thinking and higher cognitive operations. A tachistoscopic backward masking task was applied in matched groups of 20 schizophrenic, 20 schizotypal, and 20 depressive psychiatric inpatients. Resulting data are an index of visual input factors and speed of information processing. Paranoid schizophrenic and schizotypal subjects had unimpaired visual input thresholds but abnormally slow processing compared with the depressives. Since all the schizotypal subjects were nonmedicated, the data add important support to the hypothesis that impaired speed of information processing in schizophrenia spectrum disorders is due to schizophrenia per se and is not secondary to medication effects. These data also support the theoretical link between schizophrenic and schizotypal patients. The importance of the results is discussed, with emphasis on the hypothesized relationship between information processing dysfunction and symptom formation in the schizophrenias.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

The Adjusting-Paced Serial Addition Test (Adjusting-PSAT): thresholds for speed of information processing as a function of stimulus modality and problem complexity.

A modified computer version of the PASAT (Adjusting-PSAT; ) is described that measures speed of information processing and working memory by means of a temporal threshold rather than number of correct responses. This is accomplished by making the duration of the interval between numbers depend on the correctness of responding-a correct response decreases the interval between digits and an incorrect response increases the interval. Modality of presentation (visual and auditory) was factorially combined with problem difficulty (answers between 2-10 or 2-18). Performance of 60 healthy student volunteers on the Adjusting-PSAT was compared to that obtained on several traditional neuropsychological measures (Digit Span, Trail Making Test, and Symbol Digit Modality Test) and on a test of basic addition skills. The visual version of the test produced a lower threshold than did the auditory version, but problem difficulty did not produce a significant effect. Of the neuropsychological tests, Trails-B (TMT-B) was most highly correlated with thresholds. However, regression analyses revealed that math ability accounted for more variance than did TMT-B. The clinical implications of these finding are discussed.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2005

Spatial attention triggered by eye gaze enhances and speeds up visual processing in upper and lower visual fields beyond early striate visual processing.

OBJECTIVE: The detection of a lateralized visual target is faster when preceded by a face gazing to the location of this stimulus. Here we aimed to clarify the time-course of the visual processing modulated by these reflexive shifts of attention. METHODS: ERPs were measured on 16 subjects performing a speeded location task on a circular checkerboard. The checkerboard target appeared either on the left or right of the upper or lower visual field, and was preceded by a central face orienting its gaze obliquely to one of the four possible corner locations for the target to appear. RESULTS: Congruently cued targets were located faster than incongruently cued targets and were associated with larger and earlier occipital P1 (approximately 110 ms) and occipito-parieto-temporal N1 (approximately 150 ms) components. However, no such attentional modulations were found on the earlier C1 visual component, best observed with a negative polarity for upper visual field stimulations, and thought to originate largely from primary visual cortex. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: These results show that reflexive shifts of attention following oblique eye gaze to upper and lower visual fields increase and speed up the processing of visual information beyond the feedforward flow of information in primary visual cortex.

Adult↗