As the most popular simplified model of the optical imaging system, the acquisition of the Gaussian point spread function (PSF) parameter is one of the hotspots and key points on which people do research in the field of image restoration. Based on the idea by which there exists deterministic mathematical relationship between Gaussian OTF feature points as well as its parameter and the frequency representation of the image in an existed literature, we proposed an automatic, accurate, stable, and improved approach. This method is able to give prominence to the related calculation feature by a Gaussian convolution and degeneration operation and finally realize the automatic estimation of PSF parameter of a microscopic image. Experiments have proved that a good restoration result can be achieved utilizing the estimated PSF by the present method, which is of considerable application and reference value in restoration of other sorts with Gaussian approximate PSF model or 3D microscopic image restoration .
ObjectiveTo explore the effect of occupational therapy by stages on the activities of daily living (ADL) in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients during Wenchuan earthquake. MethodsTwenty-six SCI patients during Wenchuan earthquake admitted into the People's Hospital of Mianzhu City from July 2008 to June 2011 underwent two-stage occupational therapy. The first stage therapy continued for three months and the second continued for three weeks. ADL was measured using the modified barthel index (MBI). ResultsThe MBI in SCI patients after first-stage therapy was 65.71±19.30, and the MBI in SCI patients after the second-stage therapy was 76.93±16.82. All MBI item scores during the second-stage therapy were higher than in the first stage therapy, and the ability of stool and urine control, and walking increased significantly (P<0.05). ConclusionEarly and continuous occupational therapy by stages can increase the activities of daily living in spinal cord injury patients during Wenchuan earthquake.
Image interpolation is often required during medical image processing and analysis. Although interpolation method based on Gaussian radial basis function (GRBF) has high precision, the long calculation time still limits its application in field of image interpolation. To overcome this problem, a method of two-dimensional and three-dimensional medical image GRBF interpolation based on computing unified device architecture (CUDA) is proposed in this paper. According to single instruction multiple threads (SIMT) executive model of CUDA, various optimizing measures such as coalesced access and shared memory are adopted in this study. To eliminate the edge distortion of image interpolation, natural suture algorithm is utilized in overlapping regions while adopting data space strategy of separating 2D images into blocks or dividing 3D images into sub-volumes. Keeping a high interpolation precision, the 2D and 3D medical image GRBF interpolation achieved great acceleration in each basic computing step. The experiments showed that the operative efficiency of image GRBF interpolation based on CUDA platform was obviously improved compared with CPU calculation. The present method is of a considerable reference value in the application field of image interpolation.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the quality of the clinical practice guidelines of acupuncture in China, in order to identify the status quo and challenges in the development of guidelines. MethodsWe evaluated the quality of the 5 clinical practice guidelines of acupuncture in China through the guideline appraisal instrument "Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation Ⅱ" (AGREE Ⅱ). Four appraisers rated 6 domains of each guideline independently. ResultsFrom the assessment with AGREE Ⅱ, the mean scores of the six domains were as follows: "scope and purpose"55%, "stakeholder involvement" 27%, "rigor of development" 4%, "clarity of presentation" 55%, "applicability" 4%, and "editorial independence" 1%. ConclusionThe quantity of acupuncture guidelines is small and their quality is low due to the lack of methodological issues.
ObjectiveTo investigate the predictive factors of portal vein thrombosis (PVT) before and after splenectomy and gastroesophageal devascularization for liver cirrhosis with portal hypertension. MethodsSixty-one cases of liver cirrhosis with portal hypertension who underwent splenectomy and gastroesophageal devascularization were enrolled retrospectively. The patients were divided into PVT group and non-PVT group based on the presence or absence of postoperative PVT on day 7. The clinical factors related with PVT were analyzed. ResultsThere were 25 cases in the DVT group and 36 cases in the non-DVT group. The results of univariate analysis showed that the preoperative platelet (P=0.006), activated partial thromboplastin time (P=0.048), prothrombin time (P=0.028), and international normalized ratio (P=0.029), postoperative fibrin degradation product (P=0.002) and D-dimer (P=0.014) on day 1, portal venous diameter (P=0.050) had significant differences between the DVT group and non-DVT group. The results of logistic multivariate regression analysis showed that the preoperative platelet (OR=0.966, 95% CI 0.934-1.000, P=0.048) and postoperative fibrin degradation product on day 1(OR=1.055, 95% CI 1.011-1.103, P=0.017) were correlated with the PVT. The PVT might happen when preoperative platelet was less than 34.5×109/L (sensitibity 80.6%, specificity 60.0%) or postoperative fibrin degradation product on day 1 was more than 64.75 mg/L (sensitibity 48.0%, specificity 91.7%). ConclusionPreoperative platelet and postoperative fibrin degradation product on day 1 might predict PVT after splenectomy and gastroesophageal devascularization for liver cirrhosis with portal hypertension.
GRADEpro GDT-Guideline Development Tool, is an online tool for the integration of important data and process of clinical practice guidelines and diagnostic guidelines. It is a new methodology progress of the GRADE system. This paper introduced how to use GRADEpro GDT to rate the quality of evidence in systematic reviews of intervention studies with an example.
Patient values and preferences is one of the elements of evidence-based medicine research, which is also an important part that should be considered in the development of evidence-based guidelines in the present and future. However, the research in this field in China has just begun. This article gives a brief introduction of its concepts, methods, influence factors based on the international researches of patient values and preferences and a brief description of the development in China, in order to provide references for the development of evidence-based guidelines based on the consideration of patient values and preferences in the future.
The metacor, which is developed based on the classical frequentist theory, is a specified package for performing meta-analysis of correlation coefficients in R software. This package was officially launched in 2011. Based on the DerSimonian-Laird method and Olkin-Pratt method, correlation coefficients can be directly pooled by using this package. The metacor package also can be used to draw the forest plot and is easy to use; however, it still needs to be improved. This paper briefly introduced how to perform a meta-analysis of correlation coefficients using the metacor package in R software through an example.
One important problem in meta-analysis is heterogeneity, the result of bias. When inconsistency occurs, traditional work in meta-analysis is employing a random effect model based on inverse variance method to combine the results. Such a method used the moment-based estimator τ2 measuring the deviation from true value across studies to obtain a conservative result. It however failed to estimate the influence on each study due to bias and this method may at risk of underestimate the standard error which then may leads to biased summarized estimator. Accordingly, Doi proposed a new weighting procedure, QE method, hopefully be a good solution. In this article, we will introduce the QE method with details on the methodology and software, and then make a comparison between QE and random effect model of the results.
A well-conducted evidence-based guideline not only considers the efficiency and the cost of the recommended intervention, but also the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention during implementation. Systematic reviews of qualitative research aim to provide qualitative evidence such as the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. In developing evidence-based guidelines, qualitative evidence helps to:(1) Define the scope of guideline; (2) Assess the acceptability of interventions; (3) Assess the feasibility of interventions; (4) Identify considerations when implementing guidelines. Systematic reviews provide the fundamental evidence required to develop robust and trustworthy guidelines. The CERQual (Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research) approach aims to grade the evidence from systematic reviews of qualitative research. After critically and scientifically appraising by CERQual, the acceptance and feasibility of an intervention are given different grading, which is the critical process of developing evidence-based guidelines. This paper will demonstrate the value of systematic reviews of qualitative research in developing evidence-based guidelines and how to implement recommendations from qualitative evidence.