BACKGROUND A 15-gene expression profile test has been clinically validated and is widely utilized in newly diagnosed uveal melanoma (UM) patients to assess metastatic potential of the tumor. As most patients are treated with eye-sparing radiotherapy, there is limited tumor tissue available for testing, and technical reliability and success of prognostic testing are critical. This study assessed...

The aim of this study is to investigate the accuracy of body adiposity index (BAI) as a convenient tool for assessing body fat percentage (BF%) in a sample of adults with overweight/obesity using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). The study population was composed of 96 volunteers (60% female, mean age 40.6 ± 7.5 years old). Anthropometric characteristics (body mass index, height, waist-to...

BACKGROUND Ki67 labeling index (LI) is used as a predictive marker and is associated with prognosis in breast cancer. However, standardised methodologies for measurement are lacking which has limited its application in clinical practice. In this study, we evaluated the interobserver concordance of visual assessment of Ki67 LI in breast cancer. METHODS Ki67-immunostained slides of 160 cases of...

PURPOSE To develop and validate a robust standardized reporting tool for describing retinal findings in children examined for suspected abusive head trauma. DESIGN A prospective interobserver and intraobserver agreement study. METHOD An evidence-based assessment pro forma was developed, recording hemorrhages (location, layer, severity) and additional features. Eight consultant pediatric oph...

OBJECTIVE To measure the validity and reliability of the WOMAC, IKDC and Lysholm questionnaires among patients with knee osteoarthritis and determine the influence of age on their scores. METHOD Fifty-seven patients diagnosed with primary osteoarthritis of the knee answered the SF-36, WOMAC, IKDC and Lysholm questionnaires. Validity was tested by measuring the correlation (Pearson's correlati...

To explore the feasibility of pyrosequencing for quantitative differential gene expression analysis we have performed a comparative study of the results of the sequencing experiments to those obtained by a conventional DNA microarray platform. A conclusion from our analysis is that, over a threshold of 35 normalized reads per gene, the measurements of gene expression display a good correlation ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The objective of the present study was to evaluate the use of the ultrasound on the determination of the depth of the epidural space. METHODS Sixty patients were included in this prospective study; the L(3)-L(4) space was initially identified by palpation followed by the ultrasound measuring the depth of the epidural space (PU). After the epidural puncture the measur...

Aim of this study is the easy and low-cost classification of basic hand grasp motions. For this aim, two sEMG sensors were placed on the forearm muscles. The reason is that to place the sensors on two forearm muscles is a low-cost and easy method. Also these forearm muscles are related with grasp motions. At first stage of the study, feature extraction methods were applied to the energy values ...

We use self-reported health measures, nurse-administered measurements and blood-based biomarkers to examine the concordance between health states of partners in marital/cohabiting relationships in the UK. A model of cumulative health exposures is used to interpret the empirical pattern of between-partner health correlation in relation to elapsed relationship duration, allowing us to distinguish...