Body size of commom opossum Didelphis aurita Wied-Neuwied 1826 (Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae) on southern brazilian islands.

The body size of vertebrates isolated on islands can undergo changes due to ecological features of these environments. This study aimed to compare the body size of the common opossum, Didelphis aurita, from different insular populations within the same archipelago in southern Brazil. The opossum populations showed corporal variation and different hypotheses were raised to understand the results. This study constitutes the most detailed body size comparison of a marsupial within different insular populations in the Neotropical zone and the data gathered represents an initial contribution for regional fauna biometric knowledge.

Body size of commom opossum Didelphis aurita Wied-Neuwied 1826 (Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae) on southern Brazilian islands / Tamanho corpóreo de gambás Didelphis aurita Wied-Neuwied 1826 (Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae) em ilhas no sul do Brasil

The body size of vertebrates isolated on islands can undergo changes due to ecological features of these environments. This study aimed to compare the body size of the common opossum, Didelphis aurita, from different insular populations within the same archipelago in southern Brazil. The opossum populations showed corporal variation and different hypotheses were raised to understand the results. This study constitutes the most detailed body size comparison of a marsupial within different insular populations in the Neotropical zone and the data gathered represents an initial contribution for regional fauna biometric knowledge.

O tamanho corpóreo de vertebrados isolados em ilhas pode sofrer alterações em função das particularidades ecológicas desses ambientes. O presente trabalho comparou o tamanho corpóreo de gambás, Didelphis aurita, em ilhas costeiras de um mesmo arquipélago no Sul do Brasil e encontrou diferenças de tamanho entre as localidades. Os gambás apresentaram variações para as medidas corporais e diferentes hipóteses foram consideradas para entender os resultados. Esta é a comparação mais detalhada de tamanho corpóreo entre populações insulares de um marsupial neotropical e uma contribuição inicial para o conhecimento da biometria da fauna regional.

WWW accessible system for national/regional registries of clinical results of cord blood transplants: a tool to facilitate cooperative clinical research.

A system, accessible via internet, has been developed to support the Spanish Registry of Cord Blood Transplants (RETSCU). The system includes a database of clinical results directly accessible by transplant centers (TCs) and cord blood banks (CBBs) (restricted to own cases regarding primary data and unrestricted regarding statistics derived from validated data) and gives open access to Web pages containing results approved for publication. It also includes internal mail for two-way and broadcast messages. Patients' data are essentially those included in Eurocord forms. Additional features of the system are: confidentiality; inalterability of validated primary data; identifiability of data sources. The Unix central computer is accessible via the WWW. For security, data transmission is encrypted and passwords are required for access. Copies are regularly updated. Data can be loaded from CBBs and TCs. The procedure for creating and updating records is user-friendly, with the possibility of errors being minimized by extensive automated checks. Validation of patients' records by a manager is required before making data available for general statistical analysis. TCs and CBBs may retrieve data on their own cases, regardless of validation, as individual records or in tables directly transferable to common statistical programs. Statistical analysis may be done on validated data from all the patients in the Registry or from groups selected according to HLA compatibility and disease, type of transplant (related/unrelated), or protocol. Several similarly designed and managed national/regional Registries might be networked and their data integrated into a multinational Registry. Our system would require some additional developments to be used in this way.

Ambulatory system to aid in decision making and risk stratification in postinfarction patients.

Knowledge of the clinical and electrophysiological features of certain cardiovascular risk groups, the adaptation and specialization of clinical protocols, the availability of tools to make determinations for use in patient follow-up and to assess the efficacy of the treatments applied, and the proper processing of different parameters can aid in decision making, leading to the application of a given therapeutic approach, and can facilitate the performance of group and multicenter studies. To address these needs, a simple, low-cost, portable ECG processing system has been designed that complements the current techniques for managing patients with ischemic heart disease and nonmalignant ventricular arrhythmias. This system, consisting of an electrocardiograph and a laptop PC, determines the following parameters on the basis of the ECG: incidence of arrhythmia, heart rate variability, QT dispersion, ECG criteria for ventricular hypertrophy and late potentials. Left ventricular ejection fraction and diastolic function (according to Doppler ultrasound) and other basic epidemiological parameters are typed in. Moreover, the system integrates these parameters, which have usually been considered separately, to arrive at second-level indicators with a greater predictive capacity during the long-term follow-up of patients with ischemic heart disease and ventricular arrhythmias, thus providing an idea of the risk of mortality and the onset of arrhythmic events and allowing risk stratification in this patient population. Finally, the system includes a database of all the patients analyzed, with tools that make it possible to follow the course of their disease and to assess the efficacy of the treatments applied.

Intracranial pressure dynamics in clinical practice: online PC-based ICP monitoring system.

Correct patient management involves determining the exact point on the intracranial pressure/volume (P/V) curve that corresponds to the patient; this requires calculating intracranial elastance (IE). Intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring systems should provide the necessary information for this purpose. An ICP monitoring unit is presented that acquires ICP, systemic arterial pressure (SAP) and airway pressure (AWP). The cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) and the mean values and the peak-to-peak values of the two of them (ICPmean, SAPmean, ICPp-p, SAPp-p,) are calculated. Graphs display the temporal evolution (TE) of the ICP and SAP, as well as histograms of the ICP (%) and intracranial pulse amplitude (ICPAmP) with respect to the ICP or CPP during the preceding 3, 6, 12 or 24 h of monitoring. By digital filtering the ICP respiratory and cardiac components (RCICP, CCICP) are calculated. Finally, the pulse amplitudes (AmP) of the ICP, CCICP and RCICP are computed, as well as the average pulses per minute of SAP, CCICP, AWP and RCICP. Two off-line pulse-amplitude and pulse-morphology oriented toolkits display the afore-mentioned curves, histograms and average pulses per minute, and other additional ones, in order to achieve a deeper patient monitoring study.

An X-protocol based medical teleconsultation system using low or high speed networks. A specific-design approach.

The objective of this proposal is to provide solutions for the necessities of teleconsultation or telediagnosis among medical professionals, using work stations within the X-Windows environment and applicable in communication lines with an extensive range of bandwidths and operating system independence. Among the advantages sought are savings in transportation, improvement in the quality of the medical attention provided and continued training for the medical professional.

An ODA-based coder/decoder for multimedia medical documents.

This paper describes the prototype of a coder/decoder based on the Open Document Architecture (ODA) standard for management of medical documents, as well as the working environment in which it has been developed. The prototype has been assessed in an X-Windows-equipped workstation with a relational database containing patient folders (text and still images) from the departmental information system of the liver transplantation unit.

Digitization of medical documents: an X-Windows application for fast scanning.

This paper deals with digitization, using a commercial scanner, of medical documents as still images for introduction into a computer-based Information System. Document management involves storing, editing and transmission. This task has usually been approached from the perspective of the difficulties posed by radiologic images because of their indisputable qualitative and quantitative significance. However, healthcare activities require the management of many other types of documents and involve the requirements of numerous users. One key to document management will be the availability of a digitizer to deal with the greatest possible number of different types of documents. This paper describes the relevant aspects of documents and the technical specifications that digitizers must fulfill. The concept of document type is introduced as the ideal set of digitizing parameters for a given document. The use of document type parameters can drastically reduce the time the user spends in scanning sessions. Presentation is made of an application based on Unix, X-Windows and OSF/Motif, with a GPIB interface, implemented around the document type concept. Finally, the results of the evaluation of the application are presented, focusing on the user interface, as well as on the viewing of color images in an X-Windows environment and the use of lossy algorithms in the compression of medical images.

Recording of physiological signals with domestic videotape storage.

A system is presented for the recording of physiological signals on an unmodified domestic videocassette recorder (VCR). A modification in the vertical synchronism pulses permits the recording of continuous analogue signals without significant loss of samples. The system allows up to 16 input channels, with a maximum bandwidth of 20 kHz for one channel (10 kHz for two channels, 5 kHz for four, or 2.5 kHz for eight) and a minimum of 1.25 kHz for 16 channels, 12-bit resolution, a signal-to-noise ratio of nearly 70 dB and an additional channel for the recording of control and alphanumeric information. The resulting system is reliable, inexpensive, compact and of large capacity, allowing up to 8 h of uninterrupted recording.