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Sports Biomechanics Mar 2022Biomechanical and coordination measurements are useful tools to assess swimming performance. Regarding Paralympic swimming, function and technique make these... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Biomechanical and coordination measurements are useful tools to assess swimming performance. Regarding Paralympic swimming, function and technique make these measurements complex. The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review of studies on biomechanics, coordination and performance in disabled swimmers following swimming protocols and in competitions. Data sources: PubMed, EMBASE, ISI Web of Knowledge, SPORTDiscus and Academic Search Premier. We selected complete studies, published until June 2018. Eighteen studies satisfied the inclusion criteria and were selected for qualitative analysis; nine of these were included in the meta-analysis. Swimming speed and stroke length increase with less impact of physical, visual and intellectual impairment on performing specific swimming tasks. Stroke rate is more stable all through the sport classes than both swimming speed and stroke length. Most physically disabled swimmers adopt the catch-up coordination model. Stroke rate is responsible for most of the intracycle velocity variation in swimmers with amputations or malformations of the upper limbs. No study was found on propulsive efficiency. Swimmers with disabilities should work more on stroke rate, with small decreases in stroke length to achieve higher swimming speeds, lower swim coordination index (more negative) and lower speed variations.
Topics: Arm; Biomechanical Phenomena; Disabled Persons; Humans; Swimming
PubMed: 31560258
DOI: 10.1080/14763141.2019.1654535 -
European Radiology Jan 2024To calculate the pooled diagnostic performances of whole-body [F]FDG PET/MR in M staging of [F]FDG-avid cancer entities. (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
OBJECTIVES
To calculate the pooled diagnostic performances of whole-body [F]FDG PET/MR in M staging of [F]FDG-avid cancer entities.
METHODS
A diagnostic meta-analysis was conducted on the [F]FDG PET/MR in M staging, including studies: (1) evaluated [F]FDG PET/MR in detecting distant metastasis; (2) compared[ F]FDG PET/MR with histopathology, follow-up, or asynchronous multimodality imaging as the reference standard; (3) provided data for the whole-body evaluation; (4) provided adequate data to calculate the meta-analytic performances. Pooled performances were calculated with their confidence interval. In addition, forest plots, SROC curves, and likelihood ratio scatterplots were drawn. All analyses were performed using STATA 16.
RESULTS
From 52 eligible studies, 2289 patients and 2072 metastases were entered in the meta-analysis. The whole-body pooled sensitivities were 0.95 (95%CI: 0.91-0.97) and 0.97 (95%CI: 0.91-0.99) at the patient and lesion levels, respectively. The pooled specificities were 0.99 (95%CI: 0.97-1.00) and 0.97 (95%CI: 0.90-0.99), respectively. Additionally, subgroup analyses were performed. The calculated pooled sensitivities for lung, gastrointestinal, breast, and gynecological cancers were 0.90, 0.93, 1.00, and 0.97, respectively. The pooled specificities were 1.00, 0.98, 0.97, and 1.00, respectively. Furthermore, the pooled sensitivities for non-small cell lung, colorectal, and cervical cancers were 0.92, 0.96, and 0.86, respectively. The pooled specificities were 1.00, 0.95, and 1.00, respectively.
CONCLUSION
[F]FDG PET/MR was a highly accurate modality in M staging in the reported [F]FDG-avid malignancies. The results showed high sensitivity and specificity in each reviewed malignancy type. Thus, our findings may help clinicians and patients to be confident about the performance of [F]FDG PET/MR in the clinic.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT
Although [F]FDG PET/MR is not a routine imaging technique in current guidelines, mostly due to its availability and logistic issues, our findings might add to the limited evidence regarding its performance, showing a sensitivity of 0.95 and specificity of 0.97.
KEY POINTS
• The whole-body [F]FDG PET/MR showed high accuracy in detecting distant metastases at both patient and lesion levels. • The pooled sensitivities were 95% and 97% and pooled specificities were 99% and 97% at patient and lesion levels, respectively. • The results suggested that F-FDG PET/MR was a strong modality in the exclusion and confirmation of distant metastases.
Topics: Humans; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; Radiopharmaceuticals; Sensitivity and Specificity; Multimodal Imaging; Neoplasm Staging; Neoplasms; Positron-Emission Tomography; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography
PubMed: 37535156
DOI: 10.1007/s00330-023-10009-3 -
The American Journal of Emergency... Feb 2023Spurred by the Coronavirus infectious disease 2019 pandemic, aerosol containment devices (ACDs) were developed to capture infectious respiratory aerosols generated by... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Spurred by the Coronavirus infectious disease 2019 pandemic, aerosol containment devices (ACDs) were developed to capture infectious respiratory aerosols generated by patients at their source. Prior reviews indicated that such devices had low evidence of effectiveness, but did not address how ACDs should be evaluated, how well they should perform, nor have clearly defined performance standards. Towards developing design criteria for ACDs, two questions were posed: 1) What characteristics have guided the design of ACDs? 2) How have these characteristics been evaluated?
METHODS
A scoping review was performed consistent with PRISMA guidelines. Data were extracted with respect to general study information, intended use of the device, device design characteristics and evaluation.
RESULTS
Fifty-four articles were included. Evaluation was most commonly performed with respect to device aerosol containment (n = 31, 61%), with only 5 (9%), 3 (6%) and 8 (15%) formally assessing providing experience, patient experience and procedure impact, respectively. Nearly all of the studies that explored provider experience and procedure impact studied intubation. Few studies provided a priori performance criteria for any evaluation metric, or referenced any external guidelines by which to bench mark performance.
CONCLUSION
With respect to aerosol containment, ACDs should reduce exposure among HCP with the device compared with the absence of the device, and provide ≥90% reduction in respirable aerosols, equivalent in performance to N95 filtering facepiece respirators, if the goal is to reduce reliance on personal protective equipment. The ACD should not increase awkward or uncomfortable postures, or adversely impact biomechanics of the procedure itself as this could have implications for procedure outcomes. A variety of standardized instruments exist to assess the experience of patients and healthcare personnel. Integration of ACDs into routine clinical practice requires rigorous studies of aerosol containment and the user experience.
Topics: Humans; Respiratory Aerosols and Droplets; COVID-19; Personal Protective Equipment; Intubation, Intratracheal; Equipment Design
PubMed: 36435005
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajem.2022.11.007 -
Applied Bionics and Biomechanics 2022Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has a high sensitivity for differentiating between malignant and non-malignant breast lesions but is sometimes limited due to its low... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has a high sensitivity for differentiating between malignant and non-malignant breast lesions but is sometimes limited due to its low specificity. Here, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic performance of mean kurtosis (MK) and mean diffusivity (MD) values in magnetic resonance diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) for benign and malignant breast lesions.
METHODS
Original articles on relevant topics, published from 2010 to 2019, in PubMed, EMBASE, and WanFang databases were systematically reviewed. According to the purpose of the study and the characteristics of DKI reported, the diagnostic performances of MK and MD were evaluated, and meta-regression was conducted to explore the source of heterogeneity.
RESULTS
Fourteen studies involving 1,099 (451 benign and 648 malignant) lesions were analyzed. The pooled sensitivity, pooled specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio for MD were 0.84 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.81-0.87), 0.83 (95% CI, 0.79-0.86), 4.44 (95% CI, 3.54-5.57), and 0.18 (95% CI, 0.13-0.26), while those for MK were 0.89 (95% CI, 0.86-0.91), 0.86 (95% CI, 0.82-0.89), 5.72 (95% CI, 4.26-7.69), and 0.13 (95% CI, 0.09-0.19), respectively. The overall area under the curve (AUC) was 0.91 for MD and 0.95 for MK.
CONCLUSIONS
Analysis of the data from 14 studies showed that MK had a higher pooled sensitivity, pooled specificity, and diagnostic performance for differentiating between breast lesions, compared with MD.
PubMed: 35721236
DOI: 10.1155/2022/2042736 -
AJR. American Journal of Roentgenology Jun 2023Risk stratification systems for evaluating thyroid nodules on ultrasound use varying approaches to classify levels of suspicion for malignancy, leading to variable... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Risk stratification systems for evaluating thyroid nodules on ultrasound use varying approaches to classify levels of suspicion for malignancy, leading to variable performance. The purpose of this study was to perform a network meta-analysis comparing six risk stratification systems used to evaluate thyroid nodules on ultrasound in terms of their diagnostic performance for the detection of thyroid cancer. Five bibliometric databases were searched for studies published through August 31, 2022, that compared at least two of six ultrasound risk stratification systems (the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American College of Endocrinology, and Associazione Medici Endocrinologi [AACE/ACE/AME] system; American College of Radiology Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System [ACR TI-RADS]; the American Thyroid Association [ATA] risk stratification system; European Thyroid Association Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System [EU-TIRADS]; the Korean Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System [K-TIRADS] endorsed by the Korean Thyroid Association and the Korean Society of Thyroid Radiology; and the Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System developed by Kwak et al. [Kwak TIRADS]) in terms of their diagnostic performance for the detection of thyroid cancer, with cytologic or histologic evaluation used as a reference standard. The studies' risk of bias was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. A meta-analysis of each system was performed to identify the risk category threshold that had the highest accuracy as well as the highest sensitivity and specificity at this threshold. Network meta-analysis was used to perform hierarchic ranking and identify the systems having the highest sensitivities and specificities at each system's most accurate threshold. The analysis included 39 studies with 49,661 patients. All studies were of fair ( = 17) or good ( = 22) quality. The most accurate risk category thresholds were class 3 (high risk) for the AACE/ACE/AME system, TR5 (highly suspicious) for ACR TI-RADS, EU-TIRADS 5 (high risk) for EU-TIRADS, 4c (moderate concern but not classic for malignancy) for Kwak TIRADS, K-TIRADS 5 (high suspicion) for K-TIRADS, and high suspicion for the ATA system. At these thresholds, the systems had sensitivity of 64-77% and specificity of 82-90%. Network meta-analysis identified the highest sensitivity and highest specificity for ACR TI-RADS, followed by K-TIRADS. Of six risk stratification systems, ACR TI-RADS had the highest diagnostic performance for the detection of thyroid nodules on ultrasound. This network meta-analysis can inform decisions regarding implementation of the risk stratification systems and can aid future system updates.
Topics: Humans; United States; Thyroid Nodule; Network Meta-Analysis; Biopsy, Fine-Needle; Retrospective Studies; Thyroid Neoplasms; Ultrasonography; Risk Assessment
PubMed: 36752367
DOI: 10.2214/AJR.22.28556 -
EFSA Journal. European Food Safety... May 2022Climate change is a phenomenon that includes different dramatic events that deeply affect the physiology of animal species both directly and indirectly with...
Climate change is a phenomenon that includes different dramatic events that deeply affect the physiology of animal species both directly and indirectly with qualitative-quantitative impacts on livestock performances and health. The implications of climate change on animal welfare and on production demand are complex and call for a multidisciplinary approach which involved both animal science and economic sciences. The current technical report will describe the activities performed by the fellow while placed at the University of Foggia, Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Engineering, in Italy. Furthermore, the work programme offered by the hosting site consisted in performing a systematic literature review, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) Statement, and a quantitative synthesis of the literature on the impact of climate change events (e.g. heat stress) on livestock welfare and productivity and the effect of heat relieving strategies on the animals' performance.
PubMed: 35634557
DOI: 10.2903/j.efsa.2022.e200413 -
Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland) Nov 2023Levels of state and trait anxiety are relevant for performing artists and professional athletes to obtain optimal performance outcomes. However, evidence-based knowledge... (Review)
Review
Levels of state and trait anxiety are relevant for performing artists and professional athletes to obtain optimal performance outcomes. However, evidence-based knowledge regarding the effectiveness of psychological interventions on performance anxiety is currently minimal. Thus, the objective of this systematic review with meta-analysis was to characterize, aggregate, and quantify intervention effects on measures of state and trait performance anxiety in performing artists and professional athletes. A systematic search of the literature according to the PRISMA guidelines was conducted on the databases PubMed, Medline, SPORTDiscus, PsycInfo, Embase, and Web of Science from 1 January 1960 to 9 November 2022. The search only included controlled studies employing pre-post measures and excluded performing arts fields that do not depend on fine motor skills. Initially, 1022 articles were identified; after removing duplicates and assessing abstracts and full texts, 20 articles were used to calculate weighted standardized mean differences (). In terms of state performance anxiety, our results revealed a large overall effect ( = 0.88), a medium effect ( = 0.62) for studies using scales with total scores (i.e., MPAI-A, STAI), and large effects (cognitive anxiety: = 0.93, somatic anxiety: = 0.92, self-confidence: = 0.97) for studies applying scales with sub-scores (i.e., CSAI-2R)-all in favour of the intervention groups. Regarding trait performance anxiety (e.g., SCAT), we detected a small effect ( = 0.32), also favouring the intervention groups. Interventions to reduce performance anxiety in performing artists and professional athletes revealed varying levels of effectiveness ranging from small (trait) to large (state). Therefore, future studies should investigate modalities to increase intervention efficacy, especially for the small-sized changes in trait performance anxiety.
PubMed: 37998657
DOI: 10.3390/bs13110910 -
Cancer Letters Dec 2015Oropharyngeal cancer is a multifactorial disease. Alcohol and tobacco are the main risk factors. Radon is a human carcinogen linked to lung cancer risk, but its... (Review)
Review
Oropharyngeal cancer is a multifactorial disease. Alcohol and tobacco are the main risk factors. Radon is a human carcinogen linked to lung cancer risk, but its influence in other cancers is not well known. We aim to assess the effect of radon exposure on the risk of oral and pharyngeal cancer through a systematic review of the scientific literature. This review performs a qualitative analysis of the available studies. 13 cohort studies were included, most of them mortality studies, which analysed the relationship between occupational or residential radon exposure with oropharyngeal cancer mortality or incidence. Most of the included studies found no association between radon exposure and oral and pharyngeal cancer. This lack of effect was observed in miners studies and in general population studies. Further research is necessary to quantify if this association really exists and its magnitude, specially performing studies in general population, preferably living in areas with high radon levels.
Topics: Air Pollutants, Radioactive; Environmental Exposure; Humans; Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced; Oropharyngeal Neoplasms; Radon; Risk Factors
PubMed: 26335172
DOI: 10.1016/j.canlet.2015.08.025 -
F1000Research 2023A systematic literature review was conducted to summarize the overall thermal performance of different gasified cooking stoves from the available literature. For this...
A systematic literature review was conducted to summarize the overall thermal performance of different gasified cooking stoves from the available literature. For this purpose, available studies from the last 14 years (2008 to 2022) were searched using different search strings. After screening, a total of 28 articles were selected for this literature review. Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science databases were used as search strings by applying "Gasifier cooking stove" AND "producer gas cooking stove" AND "thermal performance" keywords. This review uncovers different gasified cooking stoves, cooking fuels, and fabrication materials besides overall thermal performances. The result shows that the overall thermal performance of different gasified cooking stoves was 5.88% to 91% depending on the design and burning fuels. The premixed producer gas burner with a swirl vane stove provided the highest overall thermal performance range, which was 84% to 91%, and the updraft gasified stove provided the lowest performance, which was 5.88% to 8.79%. The result also demonstrates that the wood pellets cooking fuel provided the highest thermal performance and corn straw briquette fuel provided the lowest for gasified cooking stoves. The overall thermal performance of wood pellets was 38.5% and corn straw briquette was 10.86%.
Topics: Air Pollution, Indoor; Cooking; Household Articles; Particulate Matter
PubMed: 37484517
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.126890.2 -
Cell and Tissue Banking Dec 2016For successful transplantation, allografts should be free of microorganisms that may cause harm to the allograft recipient. Before or during recovery and subsequent... (Review)
Review
For successful transplantation, allografts should be free of microorganisms that may cause harm to the allograft recipient. Before or during recovery and subsequent processing, tissues can become contaminated. Effective tissue recovery methods, such as minimizing recovery times (<24 h after death) and the number of experienced personnel performing recovery, are examples of factors that can affect the rate of tissue contamination at recovery. Additional factors, such as minimizing the time after asystole to recovery and the total time it takes to perform recovery, the type of recovery site, the efficacy of the skin prep performed immediately prior to recovery of tissue, and certain technical recovery procedures may also result in control of the rate of contamination. Due to the heterogeneity of reported recovery practices and experiences, it cannot be concluded if the use of other barriers and/or hygienic precautions to avoid contamination have had an effect on bioburden detected after tissue recovery. Qualified studies are lacking which indicates a need exists for evidence-based data to support methods that reduce or control bioburden.
Topics: Allografts; Cell Culture Techniques; Decontamination; Humans; Specimen Handling; Sterilization; Tissue Banks; Transplantation, Homologous
PubMed: 27761677
DOI: 10.1007/s10561-016-9590-5