To assess the usefulness of ordinal scoring of the visual assessment of coronary artery calcification (CAC) on low-dose computed tomographic (CT) scans of the chest in the prediction of ...cardiovascular death.
All participants consented to low-dose CT screening according to an institutional review board-approved protocol. The amount of CAC was assessed on ungated low-dose CT scans of the chest obtained between June 2000 and December 2005 in a cohort of 8782 smokers aged 40-85 years. The four main coronary arteries were visually scored, and each participant received a CAC score of 0-12. The date and cause of death was obtained by using the National Death Index. Follow-up time (median, 72.3 months; range, 0.3-91.9 months) was calculated as the time between CT and death, loss to follow-up, or December 31, 2007, whichever came first. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the risk of mortality according to CAC category adjusted for age, pack-years of cigarette smoking, and sex. The same analysis to determine the hazard ratio for survival from cardiac death was performed by using Cox regression analysis.
The rate of cardiovascular deaths increased with an increasing CAC score and was 1.2% (43 of 3573 subjects) for a score of 0, 1.8% (66 of 3569 subjects) for a score of 1-3, 5.0% (51 of 1015 subjects) for a score of 4-6, and 5.3% (33 of 625 subjects) for a score of 7-12. With use of subjects with a CAC score of 0 as the reference group, a CAC score of at least 4 was a significant predictor of cardiovascular death (odds ratio OR, 4.7; 95% confidence interval: 3.3, 6.8; P < .0001); when adjusted for sex, age, and pack-years of smoking, the CAC score remained significant (OR, 2.1; 95% confidence interval: 1.4, 3.1; P = .0002).
Visual assessment of CAC on low-dose CT scans provides clinically relevant quantitative information as to cardiovascular death.
Objective
The present study aimed to explore attitudes of medical students following a course in integrative medicine (IM) focused on palliative and supportive cancer.
Method
Attitudes to IM among ...pre-clerkship medical students were assessed following a 3-day required course, which included interviews with international experts in IM and “hands-on” workshops mentored by IM and non-IM healthcare professionals. Student reflections were analyzed qualitatively, and written narratives were examined thematically.
Results
Of 161 students, 102 (63.4%) provided post-course reflections. The main narrative themes included pre-course attitudes, attitude changes and influencing factors, and insights on implementing IM in clinical practice. Pre-course attitudes were predominantly skeptical, with post-course attitudes more open and non-judgmental, addressing research on IM effectiveness and safety. Students looked favorably on the implementation of IM in clinical practice and felt the course enhanced communication with patients.
Conclusions
Student attitudes to IM shifted following the course, from a skeptical to a more non-judgmental and accepting approach. IM course may facilitate a better understanding of the limitations and risks of IM practices, particularly in the supportive cancer care setting, as well as implications regarding students’ own resilience and professional growth.
Echocardiographic studies have shown an increase in LV mass with advanced age. However, autopsy and MRI studies demonstrate that with aging, LV mass is unchanged or slightly decreased, with a ...decrease in LV volume and an increase in wall thickness consistent with concentric remodeling. LV structural remodeling with aging may lead to an overestimation of LV mass in older adults when using standard echocardiography measurements and calculations. This study compared CT and echocardiographic LV mass calculation in younger and older patients and parameters associated with age-related LV remodeling.
Same subject modality comparison of echocardiographic and cardiac CT LV measurement with derivation of LV mass was performed retrospectively. Echocardiographic measurements were performed by a single observer in accordance with European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACI)/American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) guidelines. CT measurements were performed in end-diastole on multiplanar reformatted image planes corresponding to those typically used in echocardiography. Calculated CT measurements were based on automatic segmentation of heart chambers via edge-tracing algorithms.
129 patients were identified. In patients age 65 and older, LV mass was significantly higher when calculated using echocardiographic measurements compared to CT. Patients 65 years of age and older were found to have increased average wall thickness measurements with echocardiography but not with CT. The discrepancy between calculated echo and CT LV mass was reduced when using the mid-septal instead of proximal wall width for the EACI convention.
In the elderly, increased echo-derived LV mass may reflect remodeling rather than a true increase in LV mass.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Objectives
We assessed the appropriateness of chest–abdominal–pelvis (CAP) CT scan use in the Emergency Department (ED), based on expert physicians and the ESR iGuide, a clinical decision support ...system (CDSS).
Methods
A retrospective cross-study was conducted. We included 100 cases of CAP-CT scans ordered at the ED. Four experts rated the appropriateness of the cases on a 7-point scale, before and after using the decision support tool.
Results
Before using the ESR iGuide the overall mean rating of the experts was 5.2 ± 1.066, and it increased slightly after using the system (5.85 ± 0.911 (
p
< 0.01)). Using a threshold of 5 (on a 7-level scale), the experts considered only 63% of the tests appropriate before using the ESR iGuide. The number increased to 89% after consultation with the system. The degree of overall agreement among the experts was 0.388 before ESR iGuide consultation and 0.572 after consultation. According to the ESR iGuide, for 85% of the cases, CAP CT was not a recommended option (score 0). Abdominal–Pelvis CT was "usually appropriate" for 65 out of the 85 (76%) cases (score 7–9). 9% of the cases did not require CT as first exam modality.
Conclusions
According to both the experts and the ESR iGuide, inappropriate testing was prevalent, in terms of both frequency of the scans and also inappropriately chosen body regions. These findings raise the need for unified workflows that might be achieved using a CDSS. Further studies are needed to investigate the CDSS contribution to the informed decision-making and increased uniformity among different expert physicians when ordering the appropriate test.
Key points
Inappropriate testing was prevalent.
Experts agreement were increased after using the ESR iGuide.
The use of the ESR iGuide may contribute to informed decision-making.
The use of the ESR iGuide could increase uniformity among different expert physicians.
Although a plethora of research articles on AI methods on COVID-19 medical imaging are published, their clinical value remains unclear. We conducted the largest systematic review of the literature ...addressing the utility of AI in imaging for COVID-19 patient care. By keyword searches on PubMed and preprint servers throughout 2020, we identified 463 manuscripts and performed a systematic meta-analysis to assess their technical merit and clinical relevance. Our analysis evidences a significant disparity between clinical and AI communities, in the focus on both imaging modalities (AI experts neglected CT and ultrasound, favoring X-ray) and performed tasks (71.9% of AI papers centered on diagnosis). The vast majority of manuscripts were found to be deficient regarding potential use in clinical practice, but 2.7% (n = 12) publications were assigned a high maturity level and are summarized in greater detail. We provide an itemized discussion of the challenges in developing clinically relevant AI solutions with recommendations and remedies.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical imaging (CT, X-ray, ultrasound) has played a key role in addressing the magnified need for speed, low cost, ubiquity, and precision in patient care. The contemporary digitization of medicine and rise of artificial intelligence (AI) induce a quantum leap in medical imaging: AI has proven equipollent to healthcare professionals across a diverse range of tasks, and hopes are high that AI can save time and cost and increase coverage by advancing rapid patient stratification and empowering clinicians.
This review bridges medical imaging and AI in the context of COVID-19 and conducts the largest systematic review of the literature in the field. We identify several gaps and evidence significant disparities between clinicians and AI experts and foresee a need for improved, interdisciplinary collaboration to develop robust AI solutions that can be deployed in clinical practice.
The key challenges on that roadmap are discussed alongside recommended solutions.
In medical imaging, artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to save time and cost in the healthcare system by advancing rapid patient stratification. We conducted the largest systematic review (N = 463) of AI methodology on medical imaging data from COVID-19 patients. AI experts largely failed to focus on clinically relevant tasks and imaging modalities, and only few publications are found to be valuable. On the roadmap toward developing robust and clinically valuable AI solutions, we identify key challenges and provide possible remedies.
Palliative care is an approach meant to improve the quality of life of patients facing life-threatening illness and to support their families. An international workshop on palliative care took place ...in Caesarea, Israel under the auspices of the National Institute for Health Policy Research on July 4-5th, 2018, with the goal of discussing challenges to the development and integration of palliative care services in Israel. At the workshop, both national and international figures in the field of palliative care and health policy addressed several issues, including truth telling, religious approaches to end of life care, palliative care in the community, pediatric palliative care, Israel's Dying Patient Act, the Ministry of Health's National Plan for palliative care, and challenges in using advance directives. We summarize the topics addressed, challenges highlighted, and directions for further advancement of palliative care in the future, emphasizing the critical role of the Ministry of Health in providing a framework for development of palliative care.
Abstract Objective Reduced mortality with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung cancer screening was demonstrated in a large randomized controlled study of high-risk individuals. ...Cost-effectiveness must be assessed before routine LDCT screening is considered. We aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of LDCT lung cancer screening in Israel. Methods A decision analytic framework was used to evaluate the decision to screen or not screen from the health system perspective. The screening arm included 842 moderate-to-heavy smokers aged 45 years or older, screened at Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center from 1998 to 2004. In the usual-care arm, stage distribution and stage-specific life expectancy were obtained from the Israel National Cancer Registry data for 1994 to 2006. Lifetime stage-specific costs were estimated from medical records of patients diagnosed and treated at Hadassah Medical Center in the period 2003 to 2004. The analysis considered possible biases—lead time, overdiagnosis, and self-selection. Cost per quality-adjusted-life-year (QALY) gained by screening was estimated. Results Base-case incremental cost per QALY gained was $1464 (2011 prices). Extensive sensitivity analysis affirmed the low cost per QALY gained. The cost per QALY gained is lower than $10,000 with probability 0.937 and is lower than $20,000 with probability 0.978. Conclusions Our analysis suggests that baseline LDCT lung cancer screening in Israel presents a good value for the money and should be considered for inclusion in the National List of Health Services financed publicly.
Thoracic radiologists meet patients when performing procedures such as transthoracic computed tomography–guided biopsy and during shared decision-making required for lung cancer screening. Both ...patients and thoracic radiologists are influenced by their cultures, which affect their health care interactions. While culture may relate to religion or ethnicity of individuals, it also includes multiple additional characteristics such as gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, education, occupation, age, disability, and more. Patients from different cultures undergo similar medical procedures; however, care must be tailored according to the cultural and linguistic needs of each patient. Cultural competence allows all patients, from the same or different culture as the thoracic radiologist, to receive care that is tailored to the patient’s cultural and linguistic needs. Cultural competence includes concepts such as cultural awareness, linguistic competence, and health literacy as well as avoiding bias and stereotyping. Culturally competent care requires appropriate services for interpretation, relating to spoken language, and translation, related to written reports and documents. The implications of not providing adequate interpretation and translation services include the inability to take an accurate health history and patient inability to understand the informed consent forms. Thoracic radiologic services should have culturally competent practices in place at every step of the care, starting from the first phone call when patients are making an appointment. This will allow patients to receive care that is culturally and linguistically appropriate and lead to better satisfaction and outcomes.
Effective antirejection therapy and infection control have significantly improved the long-term survival of heart transplant recipients, but coronary allograft vasculopathy remains an important ...limiting factor. Most heart transplant recipients undergo annual coronary angiography for the detection of allograft vasculopathy, which is often clinically silent. Angiography allows detection of vasculopathy only indirectly, with depiction of the lumen, and does not depict the wall thickening and intimal hyperplasia that typify this disease; the procedure also is invasive and is associated with a 1%-2% risk of complication. In contrast, electrocardiographically gated multidetector computed tomography (CT) can provide a comprehensive and noninvasive evaluation of the transplanted heart in a single study. Cardiac CT enables evaluation of the coronary artery lumen and wall and thus may be used for screening, diagnosis, grading, and follow-up of coronary allograft vasculopathy. It also may be used to detect other posttransplantation complications, such as malignancy and infection, and to assess cardiac and vascular anastomoses and cardiac function. However, special strategies may be needed to reduce the transplant heart rate so as to obtain images of diagnostic quality.