Aim: The presence of circulatory cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma
has found new applications in non-invasive risk-free prenatal
diagnosis. Materials and Methods: We made use of a size ...separation
approach along with real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to
evaluate the use of fetal DNA in the detection of the sex of the fetus.
Cell-free fetal DNA was isolated from the plasma of 30 women (10-20
weeks gestation) using a size separation approach. We made use of Taq
Man Chemistry and real time PCR using primers and probes for GAPDH and
SRY. Results: Only 24 cases could be studied as there was no
amplification in six cases. Fetal sex was accurately determined in all
of the 24 cases wherein 19 women were carrying male fetuses and five
women were carrying female fetuses. An increase in the amount of fetal
DNA was observed with an increase in the gestational age. Conclusions:
Real time PCR analysis is a highly sensitive and accurate tool for
non-invasive prenatal diagnosis, allowing detection of the sex of the
fetus as early as 10 weeks of gestation. Non-invasive prenatal
diagnosis eliminates the risk of fetal loss associated with the
invasive procedure.
Our purpose was to develop and evaluate isolation and enrichment of fetal erythroblasts and a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach using fetal erythroblasts for detecting the beta-globin ...gene mutations for a noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of hemoglobinopathies. Maternal blood at different periods of gestation was layered on a Percoll density gradient for enrichment of fetal nucleated RBCs (NRBCs). A combination of 3 monoclonal antibodies (CD45-peridinin chlorophyll protein, glycophorin A-phycoerythrin, and anti-hemoglobin F-fluorescein isothiocyanate) was used for flow cytometric sorting of fetal NRBCs from enriched cells. Different nested PCR-based approaches were used for identification of fetal mutations. Owing to heterogeneity of beta-thalassemia mutations in the population of India, we had to screen for 12 mutations and were able to give an accurate diagnosis in 84 (84.0%) of 100 cases when compared with chorionic villus sampling or cordocentesis and DNA analysis.This nested PCR approach enabled amplification of small quantities of DNA from fetal erythroblasts, providing a cost-effective method for noninvasive diagnosis.
In recent years, there is a rapid growth in online communication. There are many social networking sites and related mobile applications, and some more are still emerging. Huge amount of data is ...generated by these sites everyday and this data can be used as a source for various analysis purposes. Twitter is one of the most popular networking sites with millions of users. There are users with different views and varieties of reviews in the form of tweets are generated by them. In this paper, we have concentrated on providing the opinion on the particular product using the Twitter data. There are millions of reviews on single product and it would be impossible for the customer or the organization to read each review and judge the quality of the product. This implementation paper provides the opinion mining on particular product based on reviews. The work includes determination of positivity, negativity of tweets and provides overall percentage of positive, negative and neutral tweets. The main idea behind this work is that the customer should automatically get suggestion about the product based on previous tweets. This implementation paper also provides effective decision making opinion to the customer and also provides feedback to the company to improve their product and business.
Recent publications have shown that copayment reductions increase medication adherence above the effects of existing disease management programs, demonstrating an additive effect of combining a ...value-based insurance design with a disease management program. This effect, however, has yet to be demonstrated for medications used for the treatment of asthma.
To evaluate the impact of a value-based health management asthma program-which included providing patient education and lowering copayments for select asthma controller medications-on medication adherence and healthcare utilization and costs.
The study involved a quasi-experimental intervention versus control group design of insured patients diagnosed with asthma.
After applying the inclusion/exclusion criteria for study participation, we obtained informed consent from the intervention group; those eligible to participate who did not return the forms served as the control group. The final sample size included 764 patients with asthma-298 in the intervention group and 466 in the control group. The intervention consisted of a reduction in copayment for select asthma controller medications from an average of $20 to $30 down to $5, as well as 3 mailings of educational materials for asthma management. Medical and pharmacy claims data for the study population were used to evaluate all study parameters and outcomes. Medication possession ratio was used to measure adherence to asthma controller medications. Statistical models were used to study differences in the 2 study groups during the 12-month follow-up period for adherence and cost outcomes.
Participation in the value-based health management asthma program increased patients' 12-month medication adherence by 10 absolute percentage points in the intervention group (53.9% for intervention vs 43.9% for control group, P <.001) and significantly decreased average monthly medical costs ($170 intervention vs $229 control, P = .004). This increase in adherence resulted in greater monthly pharmacy costs ($181 intervention vs $124 control, P <.001). However, the increase in pharmacy costs was offset by lower medical costs, leading to a nonsignificant increase in average monthly total healthcare costs ($362 intervention vs $337 control, P = .276).
Adoption of a value-based health management program that combines patient education with lowered copayments has a positive impact on medication adherence, resulting in a reduction in associated medical costs and no significant increase in total costs.
Prenatal diagnosis is an option for couples at risk of having a child affected with hemoglobinopathies. Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) and cordocentesis are accurate but a finite risk of fetal loss ...exists. A non invasive, risk free strategy that has emerged is isolation of fetal erythroblasts from maternal blood. Enrichment of nucleated red blood cells (nRBCs) from 7.0 mL maternal blood was done using a Percoll discontinuous density gradient and isolation by flow sorting using a combination of three monoclonal antibodies: CD45 per CP, glycophorin A-phycoerythrin (PE) and Hb F-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) in 43 cases between 7 and 21 weeks' gestation. The percentage of nRBCs ranged from 0.0001-2.03%. The presence of dual fluorescence (glycophorin A-PE and Hb F-FITC) was confirmed by confocal microscopy. A sufficient number of nRBCs could be isolated in the first and second trimester of pregnancy to provide a simple flow cytometric approach as a potential for non invasive diagnosis of β-globin defects.
Spontaneous rupture of the malarial spleen Tauro, Leo F; Maroli, Roshan; D'Souza, Clement R S ...
Saudi journal of gastroenterology,
10/2007, Letnik:
13, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Spontaneous rupture of the spleen is a well-described occurrence in many diseases, being most commonly found in malaria. Exact incidence of this complication is not clear. In this article, we discuss ...pathology, diagnostic approach and therapeutic options in a patient with malarial splenic rupture. Ruptures of malarial spleens do heal and attempts at splenic lavage/conservative approach should be the aim in their management. Splenectomy should be reserved for those patients with severe rupture or those with continued or recurrent bleeding.
In most electronic video applications, video with Higher Resolution (HR) are often required. HR video can offer more details that may be critical in various applications like Video Surveillance. ...Super resolution technique refers to generation of high resolution image from low resolution image by adding some extra information. Super resolution allows us to reduce the need of extra hardware to obtain HR image. This paper proposes a new method for super resolution video generation with sharpened edges using multiple frames. Unique information present in subpixel shifted frames is extracted and used for frequency domain registration process.
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