ABSTRACT
Early detection of the COVID-19 infection is the key to avoiding fatalities. Chest radiography has proven to be an effective and low-cost solution for detecting the virus. It is important to evaluate the potential of deep learning models for COVID-19 detection from the x-ray images for quick and early detection of COVID-19 with high accuracy. We conducted a study that evaluates the potential and performance of various Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) architectures for detecting the COVID-19 on a dataset consisting of 5902 chest X-ray images having 2276 instances of X-ray images of COVID-19 patients and 3626 images of healthy and non-COVID-19 pneumonia X-rays. The performance of the models is assessed using metrics like accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, F1 Score, ROC curve, etc. The results suggest that the DenseNet-121 model proved to be the better choice among evaluated architectures for COVID-19 detection from X-ray images in terms of overall performance with an accuracy of 98.2%, sensitivity of 97.6%, and specificity of 98.4%. We conclude that there is a need for further evaluation of the CNN architectures on large, real-world, and diverse datasets for obtaining generalizable results for a reliable diagnosis.Copyright © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
ABSTRACT
Aim: To assess dentists' COVID-19 anxiety and obsession following vaccination and their impressions of the COVID-19 vaccine. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study performed in July 2021. Two previously validated, standardized, self-reported scales were used: the COVID-19 anxiety scale (CAS) and the Obsession with COVID-19 scale (OCS).COVID-19 scales. The survey form was circulated through the convenience snowball technique. Data were analyzed with the help of SPSS-21. Independent sample T-Test and ANOVA were executed. Results: Data of 124 dentists were analyzed. Mean anxiety and obsession score was recorded as 5.29±4.238 and 1.87±3.34, respectively. 83.06% (n=103) of the dentists agree that the vaccine's anxiety has been reduced. Female dentists showed significantly higher anxiety (t= -2.606, P=0.011) and obsession scores (t=-3.309, P=0.02). Dysfunctional anxiety was found in 21.77% of the dentists, and obsession was observed in 9.67%. Conclusion: The majority of dentists stated that COVID-19 vaccination had lessened their anxiety related to COVID-19, and Coronavirus vaccination has greatly reduced dysfunctional anxiety and obsession.
ABSTRACT
<h4>Study Objective</h4> To assess the impact of Covid-19 global pandemic and surgical pause on operative timings in gynaecology. <h4>Design</h4> Retrospective cohort study of all laparoscopies and laparotomies undertaken in our gynaecological department (01/01/2019 - 31/12/2020). Cases and timings were identified using computerised theatre records and analysed using Excel. <h4>Setting</h4> Large National Health Service (NHS) University hospital in the United Kingdom <h4>Patients or Participants</h4> All gynaecological laparoscopies and laparotomies over 2-year period. <h4>Interventions</h4> The monthly median timings (anaesthetic, surgical, operative) were compared for 15 months (January 2019 - March 2020) preceding the Covid-19 measures being implemented with the subsequent 9 months (April - December 2020). The gynae-onccology, emergency and elective gynaecology groups were analysed separately to allow secondary assessment of the impact of surgical pause on surgical timings. <h4>Measurements and Main Results</h4> 1565 cases were performed (886 benign elective, 158 emergencies, 522 gynae-oncology) averaging 77 cases/month pre-Covid-19, 27 cases/month in the initial 3 months and 59 cases/month for the subsequent 6 months. The monthly median anaesthetic time increased from 25-31 minutes pre-Covid-19 to 50-53 minutes in the initial 3 months, with a slow return towards baseline over the subsequent 6 months (33-47 minutes). Surgical timings stayed within average monthly fluctuations in gynae-oncology and emergencies, however a clinically significant peak (245 minutes) was observed in benign elective operating times in the first full month of return compared to pre-Covid-19 (46-102 minutes). <h4>Conclusion</h4> There was a clinically significant increase in operative times following implementation of Covid-19 measures. The widest clinical impact was near doubling of anaesthetic time over the initial 3 months. The 6-week pause in operating also appeared to impact elective benign gynaecological surgical timings, however continued operating in gynae-oncology and emergencies appeared to have a protective effect on timings. These findings can aid effective surgical list planning to allow sufficient time for the additional measures on the return after the larger second wave.