Digital dual test syphilis/HIV detection based on Fourier Descriptors of Cyclic Voltammetry curves.

BACKGROUND: Effective and timely detection is vital for mitigating the severe impacts of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), including syphilis and HIV. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) sensors have shown promise as diagnostic tools for these STI, offering a pathway towards cost-effective solutions in primary health care settings. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to pioneer the use of Fourier Descriptors (FDs) in analyzing CV curves as 2D closed contours, targeting the simultaneous detection of syphilis and HIV. METHODS: Raw CV signals are filtered, resampled, and transformed into 2D closed contours for FD extraction. Essential shape characteristics are captured through selected coefficients. A complementary geometrical analysis further extracts features like curve areas and principal axes lengths from CV curves. A Mahalanobis Distance Classifier is employed for differentiation between patient and control groups. RESULTS: The evaluation of the proposed method revealed promising results with classification performance metrics such as Accuracy and F1-Score consistently achieving values rounded to 0.95 for syphilis and 0.90 for HIV. These results underscore the potential efficacy of the proposed approach in differentiating between patient and control samples for STI detection. CONCLUSION: By integrating principles from biosensors, signal processing, image processing, machine learning, and medical diagnostics, this study presents a comprehensive approach to enhance the detection of both syphilis and HIV. This setts the stage for advanced and accessible STI diagnostic solutions.

Osteoporosis screening using machine learning and electromagnetic waves.

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by impairment of bone microarchitecture that causes high socioeconomic impacts in the world because of fractures and hospitalizations. Although dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the gold standard for diagnosing the disease, access to DXA in developing countries is still limited due to its high cost, being present only in specialized hospitals. In this paper, we analyze the performance of Osseus, a low-cost portable device based on electromagnetic waves that measures the attenuation of the signal that crosses the medial phalanx of a patient's middle finger and was developed for osteoporosis screening. The analysis is carried out by predicting changes in bone mineral density using Osseus measurements and additional common risk factors used as input features to a set of supervised classification models, while the results from DXA are taken as target (real) values during the training of the machine learning algorithms. The dataset consisted of 505 patients who underwent osteoporosis screening with both devices (DXA and Osseus), of whom 21.8% were healthy and 78.2% had low bone mineral density or osteoporosis. A cross-validation with k-fold = 5 was considered in model training, while 20% of the whole dataset was used for testing. The obtained performance of the best model (Random Forest) presented a sensitivity of 0.853, a specificity of 0.879, and an F1 of 0.859. Since the Random Forest (RF) algorithm allows some interpretability of its results (through the impurity check), we were able to identify the most important variables in the classification of osteoporosis. The results showed that the most important variables were age, body mass index, and the signal attenuation provided by Osseus. The RF model, when used together with Osseus measurements, is effective in screening patients and facilitates the early diagnosis of osteoporosis. The main advantages of such early screening are the reduction of costs associated with exams, surgeries, treatments, and hospitalizations, as well as improved quality of life for patients.

Development of a Cyclic Voltammetry-Based Method for the Detection of Antigens and Antibodies as a Novel Strategy for Syphilis Diagnosis.

The improvement of laboratory diagnosis is a critical step for the reduction of syphilis cases around the world. In this paper, we present the development of an impedance-based method for detecting T. pallidum antigens and antibodies as an auxiliary tool for syphilis laboratory diagnosis. We evaluate the voltammetric signal obtained after incubation in carbon or gold nanoparticle-modified carbon electrodes in the presence or absence of Poly-L-Lysine. Our results indicate that the signal obtained from the electrodes was sufficient to distinguish between infected and non-infected samples immediately (T0') or 15 min (T15') after incubation, indicating its potential use as a point-of-care method as a screening strategy.

Sentiment Analysis in Understanding the Potential of Online News in the Public Health Crisis Response.

This study analyzes online news disseminated throughout the pre-, during-, and post-intervention periods of the "Syphilis No!" Project, which was developed in Brazil between November 2018 and March 2019. We investigated the influence of sentiment aspects of news to explore their possible relationships with syphilis testing data in response to the syphilis epidemic in Brazil. A dictionary-based technique (VADER) was chosen to perform sentiment analysis considering the Brazilian Portuguese language. Finally, the data collected were used in statistical tests to obtain other indicators, such as correlation and distribution analysis. Of the 627 news items, 198 (31.58%) were classified as a sentiment of security (TP2; stands for the news type 2), whereas 429 (68.42%) were classified as sentiments that instilled vulnerability (TP3; stands for the news type 3). The correlation between the number of syphilis tests and the number of news types TP2 and TP3 was verified from (i) 2015 to 2017 and (ii) 2018 to 2019. For the TP2 type news, in all periods, the p-values were greater than 0.05, thus generating inconclusive results. From 2015 to 2017, there was an ρ = 0.33 correlation between TP3 news and testing data (p-value = 0.04); the years 2018 and 2019 presented a ρ = 0.67 correlation between TP3 news and the number of syphilis tests performed per month, with p-value = 0.0003. In addition, Granger's test was performed between TP3 news and syphilis testing, which resulted in a p-value = 0.002, thus indicating the existence of Granger causality between these time series. By applying natural language processing to sentiment and informational content analysis of public health campaigns, it was found that the most substantial increase in testing was strongly related to attitude-inducing content (TP3).

Similarity Analysis in Understanding Online News in Response to Public Health Crisis.

BACKGROUND: The "Syphilis No!" campaign the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MoH) launched between November 2018 and March 2019, brought forward the concept "Test, Treat and Cure" to remind the population of the importance of syphilis prevention. In this context, this study aims to analyze the similarity of syphilis online news to comprehend how public health communication interventions influence media coverage of the syphilis issue. METHODS: This paper presented a computational approach to assess the effectiveness of communication actions on a public health problem. Data were collected between January 2015 and December 2019 and processed using the Hermes ecosystem, which utilizes text mining and machine learning algorithms to cluster similar content. RESULTS: Hermes identified 1049 google-indexed web pages containing the term 'syphilis' in Brazil. Of these, 619 were categorized as news stories. In total, 157 were grouped into clusters of at least two similar news items and a single cluster with 462 news classified as "single" for not featuring similar news items. From these, 19 clusters were identified in the pre-campaign period, 23 during the campaign, and 115 in the post-campaign. CONCLUSIONS: The findings presented in this study show that the volume of syphilis-related news reports has increased in recent years and gained popularity after the SNP started, having been boosted during the campaign and escalating even after its completion.

Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination on Reduction of Hospitalizations and Deaths in Elderly Patients in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, vaccination has been the core strategy to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in humans. This paper analyzes the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on hospitalizations and deaths in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. We analyzed data from 23,516 hospitalized COVID-19 patients diagnosed between April 2020 and August 2021. We excluded the data from patients hospitalized through direct occupancy, unknown outcomes, and unconfirmed COVID-19 cases, resulting in data from 12,635 patients cross-referenced with the immunization status during hospitalization. Our results indicated that administering at least one dose of the immunizers was sufficient to significantly reduce the occurrence of moderate and severe COVID-19 cases among patients under 59 years. Considering the partially or fully immunized patients, the mean age is similar between the analyzed groups, despite the occurrence of comorbidities and higher than that observed among not immunized patients. Thus, immunized patients present lower Unified Score for Prioritization (USP) levels when diagnosed with COVID-19. Our data suggest that COVID-19 vaccination significantly reduced the hospitalization and death of elderly patients (60+ years) after administration of at least one dose. Comorbidities do not change the mean age of moderate/severe COVID-19 cases and the days required for the hospitalization of these patients.

A method based on non-ionizing microwave radiation for ancillary diagnosis of osteoporosis: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a condition characterized by low bone mineral density, which typically leads to fractures and reduced quality of life. Currently, diagnostic devices used to assess this condition (e.g., dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) are very costly, making it infeasible to meet the demand for testing in most countries. Therefore, we proposed a preclinical validation of a prototype called Osseus in an attempt to enhance osteoporosis screening tests and alleviate their costs. Osseus is a device developed to assist bone mineral density classification. It integrates a microcontroller into other peripheral devices to measure the attenuation at the middle phalanx of the middle finger, with two antennas operating at the 2.45 GHz frequency. RESULTS: We conducted tests with plaster, poultry, and porcine bones. A comparison of the measurements of the original and mechanically altered samples demonstrated that the device can handle the complexity of the tissues within the bone structure and characterize its microarchitecture. CONCLUSIONS: Osseus is a device that has been preliminarily validated. Ionising radiation needed for DXA tests is replaced by non-ionising microwave electromagnetic radiation. Osseus enables early detection of osteoporosis, reduces costs, and optimizes high-complexity testing referrals. There is a lack of validation studies with the reference/gold standard that are currently under development.

Stochastic Petri net model describing the relationship between reported maternal and congenital syphilis cases in Brazil.

INTRODUCTION: Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. In 2016, it was declared an epidemic in Brazil due to its high morbidity and mortality rates, mainly in cases of maternal syphilis (MS) and congenital syphilis (CS) with unfavorable outcomes. This paper aimed to mathematically describe the relationship between MS and CS cases reported in Brazil over the interval from 2010 to 2020, considering the likelihood of diagnosis and effective and timely maternal treatment during prenatal care, thus supporting the decision-making and coordination of syphilis response efforts. METHODS: The model used in this paper was based on stochastic Petri net (SPN) theory. Three different regressions, including linear, polynomial, and logistic regression, were used to obtain the weights of an SPN model. To validate the model, we ran 100 independent simulations for each probability of an untreated MS case leading to CS case (PUMLC) and performed a statistical t-test to reinforce the results reported herein. RESULTS: According to our analysis, the model for predicting congenital syphilis cases consistently achieved an average accuracy of 93% or more for all tested probabilities of an untreated MS case leading to CS case. CONCLUSIONS: The SPN approach proved to be suitable for explaining the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN) dataset using the range of 75-95% for the probability of an untreated MS case leading to a CS case (PUMLC). In addition, the model's predictive power can help plan actions to fight against the disease.

The influence of antenna gain and beamwidth used in OSSEUS in the screening process for osteoporosis.

Applications on electromagnetic waves in the field of biotelemetry have increased in the latest years, being used to prevent, diagnose, and treatment of several diseases. In this context, biotelemetry allows minimally invasive monitoring of the physiologic, improving comfort and patient care and significantly reducing hospital costs. Aiming to assist the mineral bone density classification, through a radio frequency signal (RF), for a later diagnosis of osteoporosis, Osseus was proposed in 2018. This equipment is a combination of the application of techniques and concepts of several areas such as software, electrical, electronic, computational, and biomedical engineering, developed at a low cost, with easy access to the population, and non-invasive. However, when placed on evaluation, potential improvements were identified to increase the stability of Osseus operation. It is proposed the implementation of improvements in the antennas used by Osseus, aiming its miniaturization, improvement in the reception of the RF signal, and better stability of the equipment's operation. Then, two antennas were built, one of which was used as a project for the second, which is an array. The array showed significant improvements in the radiation parameters relevant to the application, being a candidate to replace the antennas currently in use at Osseus.

Artificial intelligence on the identification of risk groups for osteoporosis, a general review.

INTRODUCTION: The goal of this paper is to present a critical review on the main systems that use artificial intelligence to identify groups at risk for osteoporosis or fractures. The systems considered for this study were those that fulfilled the following requirements: range of coverage in diagnosis, low cost and capability to identify more significant somatic factors. METHODS: A bibliographic research was done in the databases, PubMed, IEEExplorer Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (LILACS), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct searching the terms "Neural Network", "Osteoporosis Machine Learning" and "Osteoporosis Neural Network". Studies with titles not directly related to the research topic and older data that reported repeated strategies were excluded. The search was carried out with the descriptors in German, Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin, Portuguese and English; but only studies written in English were found to meet the established criteria. Articles covering the period 2000-2017 were selected; however, articles prior to this period with great relevance were included in this study. DISCUSSION: Based on the collected research, it was identified that there are several methods in the use of artificial intelligence to help the screening of risk groups of osteoporosis or fractures. However, such systems were limited to a specific ethnic group, gender or age. For future research, new challenges are presented. CONCLUSIONS: It is necessary to develop research with the unification of different databases and grouping of the various attributes and clinical factors, in order to reach a greater comprehensiveness in the identification of risk groups of osteoporosis. For this purpose, the use of any predictive tool should be performed in different populations with greater participation of male patients and inclusion of a larger age range for the ones involved. The biggest challenge is to deal with all the data complexity generated by this unification, developing evidence-based standards for the evaluation of the most significant risk factors.