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Alzheimer's disease poses an irreversible, progressive brain disorder. It destroys affected person's memory, thinking skills, behavior and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. First symptoms of Alzheimer's disease typically appear in people being in their mid-sixties. In preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease, when a person has no apparent symptoms, toxic type changes can be noticed...
Chest wall mobility assessment is an important parameter in diagnosing pulmonary disorders. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare variations in thoracic and abdominal volumes based on changes in chest expansion that can be used as a clinical tool in pulmonary function studies. A newly proposed optical camera system utilizing a set of markers placed on subjects' thoracic and abdominal...
Varicella-zoster virus causes chickenpox, a very contagious disease manifested by rash, itching, tiredness, and fever. The affected individual gets stomach, back and face covered with blister-like rash that often spreads over the entire body resulting in 250 or even 500 itchy blisters. Babies, adults, and people with weakened immune systems can be seriously affected by chickenpox. As a part of this...
Assessment of lung sounds (LS) and documentation of their characteristics is a part of routine pulmonary diagnostic procedures. Peculiar acoustic components associated with inspiratory and/or expiratory phases of respiration such as for example asthmatic wheezes serve as useful diagnostic indicators. Supplementing manual auscultation with automatic detection and categorization methods provides opportunities...
Thoracic auscultatory signs are commonly evaluated as a part of standard diagnostic procedures which might be focused on cardiac (HS) or pulmonary (LS) origin indicators depending on evaluator's aims. However, due similarities of these sounds spectral components and their extremely small intensity especially in the presence of common external noise, a separation of their origin components can be difficult...
Obesity or adiposity is a major global health problem. Adipose tissue has been subdivided into two types: white adipose tissue (WAT) that stores energy, and brown adipose tissue (BAT) that functions to dissipate energy in the form of heat. BAT plays a particularly important role in newborns, which use this tissue to defend themselves against cold. However, using glucose tracer, it has been independently...
Detailed assessment of pulmonary mechanics parameters provides a valuable diagnostic tool. For this study a full body plethysmograph was used to collect specific airway resistance (sRaw), intrathoracic gas volume (TGV), and the total lung capacity (TLCpleth). To that end a combined pulmonary function test (PFT) maneuver was performed to collect sRaw, TGV, and slow vital capacity (SVC) and other long...
The ankle is one of the most commonly injured areas among athletes and other physically active people. Appropriate ankle rehabilitation is necessary to prevent chronic ankle injuries and ensure proper movement patterns for physical activity. A patient is typically prescribed exercises with a non-motorized wobble board and instructed to actively engage in several range of motions including dorsiflexion,...
The acoustic signatures reflecting cardiopulmonary system operation contain complex but quantifiable essential diagnostic signs. Overall, these indicators encompass inspiratory and expiratory lung sounds, S1, S2, and other heart sounds with embedded peculiar signals of diverse disease conditions. Therefore, different pattern recognition techniques including among them Gaussian Mixed Models (GMM) and...
This paper presents a methodology for optimized utilization of merged Hidden Markov Models and Mixed Gaussian Model to classify lung sounds (LS) and heart sounds (HS) as a part of cardiopulmonary diagnostic assessment. Specifically this method was used as a criterion to determine most advantageous number of clusters for the HMMGMM model calculation. For this purpose, the LS and HS characteristics...
Melanoma represents one of most malignant tumors associated with melanocytes in pigmented cells of the skin and in particular is a result of malignant transformation of melanocytes. Due to migration of neural cell crest, melanoma can develop not only on skin, but on oral and genital mucosa, and also gastrointestinal tract and brain. Melanoma is usually present and manifests itself with changes in...
When used with Low Intensity Current, electrotherapy can mimic the body's natural bioelectric signal to promote: healing in wounds, more resilient healed scars and tissue repair. Therefore, a proposed medical device that delivers electrical pulses is simulated to provide alternative and more effective options for: wound healing and tissue repair. This is created by developing a shallow layer of electrodes...
Numerous studies including annual reports by Blacksmith Institute clearly document the magnitude of regional pollution and associated health risks. In particular the air pollution encompassing PM10 and smaller particles significantly contributes to the prevalence of respiratory diseases. Specifically, the city of Mexicali with a PM10 ranking of 137 in 2010 is considered as the most polluted city in...
Pollution and associated negative impacts on human health is one of the major concerns of the World Health Organization and healthcare providers. Current interests focus on particles suspended in air known as PM10 which significantly contribute to increased prevalence of heart disease. Specifically, the city of Mexicali was found to be one of the most polluted cities of Mexico in 2010. Cardiovascular...
Globally increasing rate of cardiovascular diseases represents one of the primary health care challenges and necessitates broader population screening for earlier intervention. Present cardiovascular function assessment techniques encompass a broad range of diagnostic tools which in most cases involve high and mid level cost instrumentation. They include among others instrumentation as a part of nuclear...
The MRI or CT scan images are primary follow up diagnostic tools when a neurologic exam indicates a possibility of a primary or metastatic brain tumor existence. The tumor tissue mainly appears in brighter colors than the rest of the regions in the brain. Based on this observation, an automated algorithm for brain tumor detection and medical doctors' assistance in facilitated and accelerated diagnosis...
Cardiovascular diseases encompassing coronary artery disease, hypertension, cardiomyopathy, cardiac stenosis, arrhythmia, and other are often accompanied by peculiar acoustic events which can be reflected in auscultatory observations and recordings. A quantitative documentation of these events may add in diagnostic assessment of patient conditions and complement monitoring of the therapeutic process...
Epilepsy poses a significant burden to society due to associated healthcare costs to treat and control the unpredictable and spontaneous occurrence of seizures. There is a need for a quick screening process that could help neurologists diagnose and determine the patient's treatment. Electroencephalogram has been traditionally used to diagnose patients by evaluating brain functions that might correspond...
Socio-demographic and environmental factors contribute to elevated levels of respiratory diseases and continue to represent a globally growing public health burden in light of a limited scope of applicable diagnostic methods. This paper builds on a previously developed system for classification of respiratory condition abnormalities based on Lung Sound Automatic Verification (LSAV). In particular...
Electromyography is mainly used in the assessment of neuromuscular diseases such as muscular dystrophy, myasthemia gravis or peripheral nerve disorders; however its direct relation with limb movement, muscle's electrical signal accessibility (easy to acquire) and the need in our society to come up with rehabilitation oriented practical solutions make it an approachable and attractive option to develop...
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