ABSTRACT
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a life-threatening condition that can lead to its sequelae pulmonary embolism (PE) or post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS). Murine models of DVT are frequently used in early-stage disease research and to assess potential therapies. This creates the need for the reliable and easy quantification of blood clots. In this paper, we present a novel high-frequency 3D ultrasound approach for the quantitative evaluation of the volume of DVT in an in vitro model and an in vivo murine model. The proposed method involves the use of a high-resolution ultrasound acquisition system and semiautomatic segmentation of the clot. The measured 3D volume of blood clots was validated to be correlated with in vitro blood clot weights with an R2 of 0.89. Additionally, the method was confirmed with an R2 of 0.91 in the in vivo mouse model with a cylindrical volume from macroscopic measurement. We anticipate that the proposed method will be useful in pharmacological or therapeutic studies in murine models of DVT.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the Rural Site Visit Project (SV Project) were to develop a successful model for engaging all 201 communities in rural British Columbia, Canada, build relationships and gather data about community healthcare issues to help modify existing rural healthcare programs and inform government rural healthcare policy. DESIGN: An adapted version of Boelen's health partnership model was used to identify each community's Health Care Partners: health providers, academics, policy makers, health managers, community representatives and linked sectors. Qualitative data were gathered using a semistructured interview guide. Major themes were identified through content analysis, and this information was fed back to government and interviewees in reports every 6 months. SETTING: The 107 communities visited thus far have healthcare services that range from hospitals with surgical programs to remote communities with no medical services at all. The majority have access to local primary care. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were recruited from the Health Care Partner groups identified above using purposeful and snowball sampling. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: A successful process was developed to engage rural communities in identifying their healthcare priorities, while simultaneously building and strengthening relationships. The qualitative data were analysed from 185 meetings in 80 communities and shared with policy makers at governmental and community levels. RESULTS: 36 themes have been identified and three overarching themes that interconnect all the interviews, namely Relationships, Autonomy and Change Over Time, are discussed. CONCLUSION: The SV Project appears to be unique in that it is physician led, prioritises relationships, engages all of the healthcare partners singly and jointly in each community, is ongoing, provides feedback to both the policy makers and all interviewees on a 6-monthly basis and, by virtue of its large scope, has the ability to produce interim reports that have helped inform system change.
