Assessment of novel electrophysiology simulator-a survey study.

BACKGROUND: Invasive electrophysiology (EP) training requires intellectual skills related to the interpretation of intracardiac electrograms. The classic approach to the education of young electrophysiologists focused solely on theoretical knowledge and overseen procedures in patients as no real-life-like simulation of EP studies was available. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess a novel tool for EP training based on fully interactive, online simulator providing real clinical experience to the users. METHODS: EP simulator users access a system with simulated electrocardiogram, mimicking signals recorded by a catheter. Assessment of EP simulator by 40 electrophysiologists from 16 countries was collected via online questionnaire. RESULTS: The realism of ECG signals was described as excellent or very good by 90% of responders, of intracardial signals by 82.5%. Realism of signal interactions and user experience was judged as excellent or very good by 75% and 70% accordingly. One hundred percent of users agree definitely or mostly that EP Simulator helps to translate theoretical into practical knowledge. Of responders, 97.5% would include it in EP training programs as it is extremely or very useful for training purposes in the opinion of 87.5%. Of responders, 72.5% think that training on EP simulator can potentially reduce the rate of complications. In 87.5%, the overall experience was completely or mostly satisfying and would be recommended by 100% of responders. CONCLUSION: EP simulator is a feasible tool for training of young electrophysiologist, and it may be potentially included in the cardiologist curriculum. We should particularly emphasize the positive respondents' assessment of EP simulator overall realism.

Mobile applications in radiology: own study based on polish data.

As the number of smartphones increases, so does the number of medical apps. Medical mobile applications are widely used in many medical fields by both patients and doctors. However, there are still few approved mobile applications that can be used in the diagnostic-therapeutic process and radiological apps are affected as well. We conducted our research by classifying radiological applications from the Google Play® store into appropriate categories, according to our own qualification system developed by researchers for the purposes of this study. In addition, we also evaluated apps from the App Store®. The radiology application rating system we created has not been previously used in other articles. Out of 228 applications from the Google Play store, only 6 of them were classified as "A" category with the highest standard. Apps from the App Store (157) were not categorized due to the lack of download counts, which was necessary in our app-rating system. The vast majority of applications are for educational purposes and are not used in clinical practice. This is due to the need of obtaining special permits and certificates from relevant institutions in order to use them in medical practice. We recommend applications from the Google Play store that have been classified in the "A" category, evaluating them as the most valuable. App Store apps data is described and presented in the form of diagrams and tables.

Chest X-ray Foreign Objects Detection Using Artificial Intelligence.

Diagnostic imaging has become an integral part of the healthcare system. In recent years, scientists around the world have been working on artificial intelligence-based tools that help in achieving better and faster diagnoses. Their accuracy is crucial for successful treatment, especially for imaging diagnostics. This study used a deep convolutional neural network to detect four categories of objects on digital chest X-ray images. The data were obtained from the publicly available National Institutes of Health (NIH) Chest X-ray (CXR) Dataset. In total, 112,120 CXRs from 30,805 patients were manually checked for foreign objects: vascular port, shoulder endoprosthesis, necklace, and implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). Then, they were annotated with the use of a computer program, and the necessary image preprocessing was performed, such as resizing, normalization, and cropping. The object detection model was trained using the You Only Look Once v8 architecture and the Ultralytics framework. The results showed not only that the obtained average precision of foreign object detection on the CXR was 0.815 but also that the model can be useful in detecting foreign objects on the CXR images. Models of this type may be used as a tool for specialists, in particular, with the growing popularity of radiology comes an increasing workload. We are optimistic that it could accelerate and facilitate the work to provide a faster diagnosis.

Quality of Life 6 Months after COVID-19 Hospitalisation: A Single-Centre Polish Registry.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the entire global population, had an impact on our health and quality of life. Many people had complications, were hospitalised or even died due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The health systems of many countries had to radically change their way of functioning and scientists around the world worked intensively to develop a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. AIM: The aim of this work is to assess the quality of life of patients who were hospitalised for COVID-19, using the SF-36 questionnaire. METHODS: Between May and August 2022, we conducted a telephone assessment of quality of life in patients who were hospitalised for COVID-19 at the Temporary Hospital in Pyrzowice (Silesia, Poland), between November 2021 and January 2022. RESULTS: Quality of life was significantly lower in women (p = 0.040), those with DM2 (p = 0.013), CKD (p = 0.041) and the vaccinated (p = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: People with chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus and women had a lower quality of life after COVID-19 disease. However, people who were vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2 had a lower quality of life than non-vaccinated people did. This is possibly due to the higher mean age, and probably the higher disease burden, in the vaccinated group.

What Is Machine Learning, Artificial Neural Networks and Deep Learning?-Examples of Practical Applications in Medicine.

Machine learning (ML), artificial neural networks (ANNs), and deep learning (DL) are all topics that fall under the heading of artificial intelligence (AI) and have gained popularity in recent years. ML involves the application of algorithms to automate decision-making processes using models that have not been manually programmed but have been trained on data. ANNs that are a part of ML aim to simulate the structure and function of the human brain. DL, on the other hand, uses multiple layers of interconnected neurons. This enables the processing and analysis of large and complex databases. In medicine, these techniques are being introduced to improve the speed and efficiency of disease diagnosis and treatment. Each of the AI techniques presented in the paper is supported with an example of a possible medical application. Given the rapid development of technology, the use of AI in medicine shows promising results in the context of patient care. It is particularly important to keep a close eye on this issue and conduct further research in order to fully explore the potential of ML, ANNs, and DL, and bring further applications into clinical use in the future.

Drug-Eluting Stents: Technical and Clinical Progress.

Drug-eluting stents (DES) demonstrated superior efficacy when compared to bare metal stents and plain-old balloon angioplasty and are nowadays used in almost all percutaneous revascularization procedures. The design of the stent platforms is constantly improving to maximize its efficacy and safety. Constant development of DES includes adoption of new materials used for scaffold production, new design types, improved overexpansion abilities, new polymers coating and, finally, improved antiproliferative agents. Especially nowadays, with the immense number of available DES platforms, it is crucial to understand how different aspects of stents impact the effect of their implantation, as subtle differences between various stent platforms could impact the most important issue-clinical outcomes. This review discusses the current status of coronary stents and the impact of stent material, strut design and coating techniques on cardiovascular outcomes.

Usability of Mobile Solutions Intended for Diagnostic Images-A Systematic Review.

Despite the growing popularity of mobile devices, they still have not found widespread use in medicine. This is due to the procedures in a given place, differences in the availability of mobile devices between individual institutions or lack of appropriate legal regulations and accreditation by relevant institutions. Numerous studies have been conducted and compared the usability of mobile solutions designed for diagnostic images evaluation on various mobile devices and applications with classic stationary descriptive stations. This study is an attempt to compare the usefulness of currently available mobile applications which are used in the medical industry, focusing on imaging diagnostics. As a consequence of the healthcare sector's diversity, it is also not possible to design a universal mobile application, which results in a multitude of software available on the market and makes it difficult to reliably compile and compare studies included in this systematic review. Despite these differences, it was possible to identify both positive and negative features of portable methods analyzing radiological images. The mobile application of the golden mean in hospital infrastructure should be widely available, with convenient and simple usage. Our future research will focus on development in the use of mobile devices and applications in the medical sector.

Application of artificial intelligence in diagnosing COVID-19 disease symptoms on chest X-rays: A systematic review.

This systematic review focuses on using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect COVID-19 infection with the help of X-ray images. Methodology: In January 2022, the authors searched PubMed, Embase and Scopus using specific medical subject headings terms and filters. All articles were independently reviewed by two reviewers. All conflicts resulting from a misunderstanding were resolved by a third independent researcher. After assessing abstracts and article usefulness, eliminating repetitions and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, six studies were found to be qualified for this study. Results: The findings from individual studies differed due to the various approaches of the authors. Sensitivity was 72.59%-100%, specificity was 79%-99.9%, precision was 74.74%-98.7%, accuracy was 76.18%-99.81%, and the area under the curve was 95.24%-97.7%. Conclusion: AI computational models used to assess chest X-rays in the process of diagnosing COVID-19 should achieve sufficiently high sensitivity and specificity. Their results and performance should be repeatable to make them dependable for clinicians. Moreover, these additional diagnostic tools should be more affordable and faster than the currently available procedures. The performance and calculations of AI-based systems should take clinical data into account.

Cardiovascular System during SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

SARS-CoV-2 virus can not only damage the respiratory system but may also pose a threat to other organs, such as the heart or vessels. This review focuses on cardiovascular complications of COVID-19, including acute cardiac injury, arrhythmias, biomarkers, accompanying comorbidities and outcomes in patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection. The research was conducted on the databases: PubMed, Springer, ScienceDirect, UpToDate, Oxford Academic, Wiley Online Library, ClinicalKey. Fifty-six publications from 1 November 2020 till 15 August 2021 were included in this study. The results show that cardiac injury is present in about 1 in 4 patients with COVID-19 disease, and it is an independent risk factor, which multiplies the death rate several times in comparison to infected patients without myocardial injury. New-onset cardiac injury occurs in nearly every 10th patient of the COVID-19-suffering population. Comorbidities (such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes) severely deteriorate the outcome. Therefore, patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection should be carefully assessed in terms of cardiac medical history and possible cardiological complications.

Genetic Factors in Selected Complex Congenital Malformations with Cleft Defect.

Cleft lips, alveolar ridges and palates are among the most common birth defects. There are over 500 different complex genetic disorders that include cleft defects. The most common related defects include abnormalities of the skeleton, skull, cardiovascular and nervous system. The occurrence of a cleft results from the interplay of multiple genes and environmental factors. Several thousand different mutations responsible for these syndromes have been discovered, whereas there are still numerous phenotypic cases of unknown genetic origin. The aim of this study was to present various clinical aspects and the latest discoveries with regard to genetic research in complex malformations, such as Van der Woude syndrome, popliteal pterygium syndrome, EEC syndrome, Pierre Robin sequence, various forms of Stickler syndrome, and Treacher Collins syndrome. These complex syndromes have different incidences, and most of them also have allelic variants with characteristic severities that differ even among close relatives. Easier access to genetic counseling and the lower cost of DNA testing in recent years can lead to new findings on the causes of such syndromes.

The use of stem cells in plastic and reconstructive surgery.

As part of their clinical practice, plastic surgeons perform procedures in the fields of skin and adipose tissue grafting, the reconstruction of compound tissue loss and congenital malformations, the treatment of acute and chronic wounds and burns, as well as cosmetic surgery. On account of the great expectations associated with their use in therapy, stem cells (SCs) are increasingly frequently employed in in vitro experiments, animal models and clinical trials. The most commonly utilized SCs for these purposes are adult stem cells (AS), which are present in small amounts in every tissue; among these are two types of cells: bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) and adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs). The aim of this review is to present current findings in experimental research on the use of stem cells in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery. Many studies have described the progress of trials using ADSCs and BM-MSCs mainly in the treatment of compound tissue loss and chronic wounds. The use of their paracrine, proangiogenic and osteogenic functions is emphasized. However, because of the very high harvesting and culturing expenses and the limited availability of data on their safety for human use, SCs are not a first-choice therapy. Further developments in SC research and gradually decreasing costs mean that along with commercial-scale SC culturing, the use of SCs will become a viable alternative to traditional surgical procedures.

Osteoplasty of the alveolar cleft defect.

Cleft of lip, alveolar process and palate is the most common congenital defect affecting the face. It occurs at the time of early embryogenesis as a result of disturbed differentiation of the primordial cell layer and is associated with genetic and environmental factors. The most severe type of the defect is complete cleft of the lip, alveolar process and palate, unilateral or bilateral, which is accompanied by impaired breathing, sucking, swallowing, chewing, hearing and speaking. The treatment consists in the surgical reconnection (reconstruction) of the cleft anatomical structures and their formation to gain proper appearance, occlusal conditions and speech. The part of the surgical treatment is reconstruction of alveolar bone by means of autogenic spongy bone grafting (osteoplasty). The surgery performed at the stage of mixed dentition following an orthodontic treatment is a recognized standard management modality. Its effects provide stabilization of the dental arches fixed in the orthodontic treatment, possibility of growth of permanent teeth adjoining the cleft as well as separation of the nasal and oral cavities. The grafted bone becomes a platform for the collapsed base of the ala nasi and facilitates restoration of teeth loss. In the graft healing process the volume of the regenerated bone tissue is lower than the graft volume. Methods to augment the healed bone volume are being searched for, as this factor decides substantially on successful outcome of the surgery.