Short-term outcome of very low-birth-weight infants in a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia over a decade.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge on short-term outcomes of preterm infants is important for quality control. Our objective was to analyze the outcomes of very low birth weight infants admitted to our neonatal intensive care unit over a ten years' period and to compare the results with internationally published data. METHODS: We analyzed the outcome measures for all live born infants with birth weight (BW) of 400-1500 grams and gestational age (GA) of 23-32 weeks born at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre between 2006 and 2015. Results were compared to data from four international neonatal networks. RESULTS: During the study period, we admitted 528 infants born at a gestational age of≥23 and≤32 weeks with a very low birth weight (VLBW) of 400-1500 grams. Mean (SD) GA was 28 (2.4) weeks and mean (SD) BW was 1007 (290) grams. A hundred and twenty-nine (24.4%) infants were small for gestational age and major congenital anomalies were present in 56 (10.6 %) infants. The rate of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) was 24.4 %, necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) 9.1%, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) 29.9%, severe intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH)10.8 %, periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) 5.7%, severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) 8%, and late-onset sepsis was 18.8%. The incidences of major neonatal outcomes such as CLD, NEC, severe IVH and severe ROP were comparable to the international cohorts. CONCLUSION: In our population of preterm infants, survival rates and complications of prematurity were comparable to international data.

Superiority of capsaicin 8% patch versus oral pregabalin on dynamic mechanical allodynia in patients with peripheral neuropathic pain.

BACKGROUND: Dynamic Mechanical Allodynia (DMA) is a typical symptom of neuropathic pain (NP). In a recent study, the capsaicin 8% patch was noninferior to pregabalin in overall peripheral NP relief. In this study, we report the comparison of the two treatments in relieving DMA. METHODS: In a randomized, open-label, head-to-head, 8-week study, 488 patients with peripheral NP were treated with the capsaicin 8% patch (one application) or an optimized dose of pregabalin. Assessments included the area and intensity of DMA, and the number of patients achieving complete resolution of DMA. RESULTS: At baseline, 253 patients in the capsaicin 8% patch group and 235 patients in the pregabalin group had DMA. From baseline to end of study, the change in DMA intensity was significantly in favour of the capsaicin 8% patch versus pregabalin [-0.63 (95% CI: -1.04, -0.23; p = 0.002)]. Similarly, the capsaicin 8% patch was superior to pregabalin in reducing the area of DMA [-39.5 cm2 (95% CI: -69.1, -10.0; p = 0.009)] from baseline to end of study. Overall, a greater proportion of patients had a complete resolution of allodynia with capsaicin 8% patch treatment compared with pregabalin treatment (24.1% vs. 12.3%; p = 0.001) at end of study. CONCLUSION: Capsaicin 8% treatment was superior to pregabalin in reducing the intensity and area of DMA, and in the number of patients with complete resolution of DMA. SIGNIFICANCE: The superiority of a topical treatment over pregabalin in relieving DMA supports the view that both peripheral and central sensitization can mediate allodynia.

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in South Asian countries.

Toxoplasmosis, a cosmopolitan zoonosis, is caused by an apicomplexan, obligate, intracellular protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. Nearly all animals, including humans, are at risk owing to its broad geographical distribution. The authors searched published data related to T. gondii in databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed and Science Direct for South Asian countries, and retrieved a total of 113 articles fulfilling the criterion of seroprevalence investigation. Toxoplasma gondii infection in livestock and humans was investigated using various serological tests. In these studies, a total of 14,431 samples from domestic animals and 53,899 samples from humans were screened for anti-T. gondii antibodies in all South Asian countries. Among the animals, cattle (n = 1,981), goats (n = 3,285), buffaloes (n = 1,695), sheep (n = 1,747), cats (n = 1,480), camels (n = 435), elephants (n = 45), pigs (n = 920), dogs (n = 1,604) and poultry (n = 1,206) were tested. This comprehensive review will be useful to biologists, public health workers, physicians and veterinarians and provides a better understanding of the distribution of T. gondii in this region. Furthermore, this knowledge will support efforts to find and apply effective prevention measures to better manage this zoonosis in South Asian countries.

La toxoplasmose est une maladie cosmopolite causée par Toxoplasma gondii, un protozoaire unicellulaire obligatoire appartenant au phylum des Apicomplexa. Du fait de sa distribution géographique, pratiquement toutes les espèces animales sont exposées, ainsi que l'homme. Les auteurs ont fait une recherche dans plusieurs bases de données, dont Google Scholar, PubMed et Science Direct, sur les articles consacrés à T. gondii dans les pays d'Asie du Sud, qui a permis d'extraire un total de 113 articles présentant toutes les caractéristiques d'une enquête sérologique. L'infection par Toxoplasma gondii chez l'homme et chez les animaux d'élevage a fait l'objet de plusieurs enquêtes recourant à divers tests sérologiques. Ces études font état d'un total de 14 431 échantillons prélevés d'animaux domestiques et de 53 899 échantillons prélevés chez l'homme, qui ont été soumis à une épreuve de détection d'anticorps dirigés contre T. gondii dans les pays d'Asie du Sud. Les études ont couvert les espèces suivantes : bovins (n = 1 981), chèvres (n = 3 285), buffles (n = 1 695), moutons (n = 1 747), chats (n = 1 480), chameaux (n = 435), éléphants (n = 45), porcs (n = 920), chiens (n = 1 604) et volailles (n = 1 206). Ce panorama exhaustif sera utile aux biologistes, aux intervenants en santé publique, aux médecins et aux vétérinaires et permettra de mieux appréhender la distribution de T. gondii dans la région. Ces connaissances contribueront à concevoir et à appliquer des mesures de prévention efficaces afin de mieux gérer cette zoonose dans les pays d'Asie du Sud.

La toxoplasmosis es una zoonosis cosmopolita causada por un protozoo, parásito intracelular obligado, del grupo de los apicomplejos: Toxoplasma gondii. Por su amplia distribución geográfica, constituye una amenaza para casi todos los animales, incluido el ser humano. Tras indagar en bases de datos de publicaciones (Google Scholar, PubMed y Science Direct) en busca de información relacionada con la presencia de T. gondii en los países del meridión asiático, los autores encontraron un total de 113 artículos que cumplían el criterio de dar cuenta de investigaciones sobre la seroprevalencia. Para estudiar la infección por Toxoplasma gondii en el ganado y el ser humano se habían empleado diversas pruebas serológicas. En el conjunto de esos estudios, que cubrían todos los países de Asia meridional, se habían analizado un total de 14.431 muestras de animales domésticos y 53.899 muestras humanas para detectar anticuerpos contra T. gondii. Los animales analizados eran: ganado vacuno (n = 1.981), cabras (n = 3.285), búfalos (n = 1.695), ovejas (n = 1.747), gatos (n = 1.480), camellos (n = 435), elefantes (n = 45), cerdos (n = 920), perros (n = 1.604) y aves de corral (n = 1.206). Este repaso general, que resultará útil a biólogos, agentes de salud pública, médicos y veterinarios, permite conocer mejor la distribución de T. gondii en la región, lo que además será de ayuda a la hora de determinar y aplicar medidas eficaces de prevención con objeto de controlar más eficazmente esta zoonosis en los países de Asia meridional.

Adding constraints to predation through allometric relation of scats to consumption.

A thorough understanding of mechanisms of prey consumption by carnivores and the constraints on predation help us in evaluating the role of carnivores in an ecosystem. This is crucial in developing appropriate management strategies for their conservation and mitigating human-carnivore conflict. Current models on optimal foraging suggest that mammalian carnivores would profit most from killing the largest prey that they can subdue with minimal risk of injury to themselves. Wild carnivore diets are primarily estimated through analysis of their scats. Using extensive feeding experiments (n = 68) on a wide size range (4·5-130 kg) of obligate carnivores - lion, leopard, jungle cat and domestic cat, we parameterize biomass models that best relate consumption to scat production. We evaluate additional constraints of gut fill, prey digestibility and carcass utilization on carnivory that were hereto not considered in optimal foraging studies. Our results show that patterns of consumption to scat production against prey size are similar and asymptotic, contrary to established linear models, across these carnivores after accounting for the effect of carnivore size. This asymptotic, allometric relationship allowed us to develop a generalized model: biomass consumed per collectable scat/predator weight = 0·033-0·025exp(-4·284(prey weight/predator weight)) , which is applicable to all obligate carnivores to compute prey biomass consumed from scats. Our results also depict a relationship for prey digestibility which saturates at about 90% for prey larger than predator size. Carcass utilization declines exponentially with prey size. These mechanisms result in digestible biomass saturating at prey weights approximately equal to predator weight. Published literature on consumption by tropical carnivores that has relied on linear biomass models is substantially biased. We demonstrate the nature of these biases by correcting diets of tiger, lion and leopard in recent publications. Our analysis suggests that consumption of medium-sized prey was significantly underestimated, while large prey consumption was grossly overestimated in large carnivore diets to date. We highlight that additional constraints of prey digestibility and utilization combined with escalating handling time and risks of killing large prey make prey larger than the predator size unprofitable for obligate carnivores.

Processing movement related cortical potentials in EEG signals for identification of slow and fast movements.

The extraction of intended kinetic information from an EEG signal can have several applications related to the rehabilitation for subjects with various neurological disorders. However, the task is mainly constrained by the low signal-to-noise ratio for the EEG signals. It is well known that the cortical activity takes place at a very low frequency since it is characterized by the dropping of movement related cortical potential (MRCP) across the sampled EEG signal. The strong variations in the MRCP is indicative of the noise due to various sources. The aim of this work is to remove this noise from the EEG signals using empirical mode decomposition, which decomposes a signal into harmonics (intrinsic mode functions--IMF) of various frequencies. The IMFs pertaining to small frequencies are later used for features extraction where we extract the spatial and spectral features from the selected IMFs. The features are later used for classification using support vector machines (SVM). Our experiments show superior results to the benchmark method for the underlying dataset that has been used in this research.

Segmentation for classification of gastroenterology images.

Automatic classification of cancer lesions in tissues observed using gastroenterology imaging is a non-trivial pattern recognition task involving filtering, segmentation, feature extraction and classification. In this paper we measure the impact of a variety of segmentation algorithms (mean shift, normalized cuts, level-sets) on the automatic classification performance of gastric tissue into three classes: cancerous, pre-cancerous and normal. Classification uses a combination of color (hue-saturation histograms) and texture (local binary patterns) features, applied to two distinct imaging modalities: chromoendoscopy and narrow-band imaging. Results show that mean-shift obtains an interesting performance for both scenarios producing low classification degradations (6%), full image classification is highly inaccurate reinforcing the importance of segmentation research for Gastroenterology, and confirm that Patch Index is an interesting measure of the classification potential of small to medium segmented regions.