Objectives: To investigate the diagnostic value of different clinical and laboratory findings in pneumonia and to explore the association between the doctors degree of suspicion and chest X-ray (CXR) result and to evaluate whether or not CXR should be used routinely in primary care, when available. Design: A three-year prospective study was conducted between September 2011 and December 2014. Setting: Two primary care settings in Linkoping, Sweden. Subjects: A total of 103 adult patients with suspected pneumonia in primary care. Main outcome measures: The physicians recorded results of a standardized medical physical examination, including laboratory results, and rated their suspicion into three degrees. The outcome of the diagnostic variables and the degree of suspicion was compared with the result of CXR. Results: Radiographic pneumonia was reported in 45% of patients. When the physicians were sure of the diagnosis radiographic pneumonia was found in 88% of cases (p<0.001), when quite sure the frequency of positive CXR was 45%, and when not sure 28%. Elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP)50mg/L were associated with the presence of radiographic pneumonia when the diagnosis was suspected (p<0.001). Conclusion: This study indicates that CXR can be useful if the physician is not sure of the diagnosis, but when sure one can rely on ones judgement without ordering CXR.

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Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a common finding in hemodialysis patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate if the diameter of the distal radiocephalic fistula could influence left ventricular variables in stable hemodialysis patients.

Methods

Nineteen patients were investigated. Measurements of the diameter of the arteriovenous (AV) fistula were performed in 4 different locations. The patients were investigated using M-mode recordings and measurements in the 2D image. Doppler ultrasound was also performed. Transonic measurements were performed after ultrasound investigation.

Results

Fistula mean and maximal diameter correlated with left ventricular characteristics. Fistula flow correlated neither with the left ventricular characteristics nor with fistula diameters.

Conclusions

The maximal diameter of the distal AV fistula seems to be a sensitive marker of LVH in stable hemodialysis patients.

A new level-set based interactive segmentation framework is introduced, where the algorithm learns the intensity distributions of the tumor and surrounding tissue from a line segment drawn by the user from the middle of the lesion towards the border. This information is used to design a likelihood function, which is then incorporated into the level-set framework as an external speed function guiding the segmentation. The endpoint of the input line segment sets a limit to the propagation of 3D region, i.e., when the zero-level-set crosses this point, the propagation is forced to stop. Finally, a fast level set algorithm with coherent propagation is used to solve the level set equation in real time. This allows the user to instantly see the 3D result while adjusting the position of the line segment to tune the parameters implicitly. The "fluctuating" character of the coherent propagation also enables the contour to coherently follow the mouse cursors motion when the user tries to fine-tune the position of the contour on the boundary, where the learned likelihood function may not necessarily change much. Preliminary results suggest that radiologists can easily learn how to use the proposed segmentation tool and perform relatively accurate segmentation with much less time than the conventional slice-by-slice based manual procedure.

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Background: The role of vitamin D supplementation as adjuvant treatment of tuberculosis (TB) has lately attracted increasing interest. Our aim was to investigate the capacity of alveolar macrophages (AMs) from patients with or without exposure to TB to control intracellular growth of virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb).

Methods: AMs were freshly harvested from the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of 7 patients with a history of TB (4 patients with previous TB and 3 patients with current TB) and 4 non-TB subjects. The H37Rv strain, genetically modified to express Vibrio harveyi luciferase, was used to determine the growth of Mtb by luminometry in the AMs from study subjects. Cytokine levels in culture supernatants were determined using a flow cytometry-based bead array technique.

Results: AMs from patients with a TB history were less efficient in restricting Mtb growth. Stimulation with 100 nM1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25D₃) did not significantly influence the capacity of AMs from any study subjects to control the infection. Out of the cytokines evaluated (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-10 and IL-12p40) only TNF-α demonstrated detectable levels in culture supernatants, but did not respond to stimulation with 1,25D₃.

Conclusions: We conclude that AMs of TB-patients show reduced ability to control mycobacterial growth in vitro, and, that AMs in this pilot study do no respond to 1, 25D₃-stimulation. The former observation supports the concept that innate immunity is crucial for the control of TB infection.

The emergence of multidrug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (TB), has rekindled the interest in the role of nutritional supplementation of micronutrients, such as vitamin D, as adjuvant treatment. Here, the growth of virulent MTB in macrophages obtained from the peripheral blood of patients with and without TB was studied. The H37Rv strain genetically modified to express Vibrio harveyi luciferase was used to determine the growth of MTB by luminometry in the human monocyte-derived macrophages (hMDMs) from study subjects. Determination of cytokine levels in culture supernatants was performed using a flow cytometry-based bead array technique. No differences in intracellular growth of MTB were observed between the different study groups. However, stimulation with 100 nM 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D significantly enhanced the capacity of hMDMs isolated from TB patients to control the infection. This effect was not observed in hMDMs from the other groups. The interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-10 release by hMDMs was clearly increased upon stimulation with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. Furthermore, the 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D stimulation also led to elevated levels of TNF-α (tumor necrosis factor-alpha) and IL-12p40. It was concluded that vitamin D triggers an inflammatory response in human macrophages with enhanced secretion of cytokines, as well as enhancing the capacity of hMDMs from patients with active TB to restrict mycobacterial growth.

Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of coronary CT angiography (CCTA) using segmented 3D data for the detection of significant stenoses with catheter angiography (CA) as the reference standard.

Method: CCTA data sets from 30 patients were acquired with a 64-slice dual source CT scanner and segmented by an independent observer using the region growing (RG) method and the “virtual contrast injection” (VC) method. For every examination, each of the three types of images was  then reviewed by one of three reviewers in a blinded fashion for the presence of stenoses with diameter reduction of 50% or more. For the original series, the reviewer was allowed to use all the 2D or 3D visualization tools available (mixed method). For the segmented results (from RG and VC), the reviewer only used the 3D maximum intensity projection. Evaluation results were compared with CA for each artery.

Results: Overall, 34 arteries with significant stenosis were identified by CA. The percentage of evaluable arteries, accuracy and negative predictive value (NPV) for detecting stenosis were, respectively, 86%, 74% and 93% for the mixed method, 83%, 71% and 92% for VC, and 64%, 56% and 93% for RG. Accuracy was significantly lower for the RG method than for the other two methods (p<0.01), whereas there was no significant difference in accuracy between the VC method and the mixed method (p = 0.22). Excluding vessels with heavy calcification, all three methods had similar accuracy.

Conclusion: Diagnostic accuracy when using segmented 3D data was lower than with access to 2D images. However, the high NPV of the 3D methods suggests a potential of using them as an initial step, with access to 2D reviewing techniques for suspected lesions and cases with heavy calcification. The VC method, which generates more evaluable arteries and has higher accuracy, seems more promising for this purpose than the RG method.