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Diagnostics

Diagnostics is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal on medical diagnosis published semimonthly online by MDPI.
The British Neuro-Oncology Society (BNOS), the International Society for Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (ISIDOG) and the Swiss Union of Laboratory Medicine (SULM) are affiliated with Diagnostics and their members receive a discount on the article processing charges.
Indexed in PubMed | Quartile Ranking JCR - Q1 (Medicine, General and Internal)

All Articles (17,590)

Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support is associated with potentially life-threatening complications, among which nosocomial infections play a significant role. The increasing incidence of fungi as causative agents of ECMO-associated infections is a growing concern. Methods: This case series includes all patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the “Renato Dulbecco” Teaching Hospital in Catanzaro who developed invasive fungal infections (IFIs) during ECMO support. Results: Of the 70 patients, 15.7% (N = 11) developed IFIs during ECMO. Among these, 91% (N = 10) died, while one patient survived and was discharged. Of the IFIs, 72.7% (N = 8) were cases of invasive candidiasis (IC), and 18.2% (N = 2) were cases of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA). One patient developed both IC and IPA during ECMO treatment. Additionally, 54.5% (N = 6) of the patients with IFIs also had bacterial co-infections, most of which were caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria. Conclusions: This study highlights the high incidence and mortality of IFIs in ECMO patients. It underscores the urgent need for clear definitions, better diagnostic strategies, pharmacokinetic data on antifungal therapies, and the implementation of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) to optimize outcomes in this vulnerable population.

7 February 2026

Time of onset in days of IFI from the start of ECMO. Legend. IC: invasive candidiasis; IPA: invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. This figure shows the time of onset from the start of ECMO for IC and IPA. All IPA (3) occurred in the first week, whereas IC occurred mainly from the second week onwards.

Impact of Maneuverability Constraints on Intraoral Scanner Performance

  • Chieh-Ming Yu,
  • Wei-Chun Lin and
  • Chia-Cheng Lin
  • + 2 authors

Background/Objectives: Intraoral scanners (IOSs) are essential tools in digital dentistry; however, their accuracy remains influenced by clinical conditions such as restricted access, patient movement, or intraoral moisture. Intraoral scanning is performed within a confined space that restricts scanner motion, potentially influencing maneuverability during data acquisition and, consequently, IOS performance. This study investigated the impact of maneuverability constraints on the trueness accuracy and efficiency of IOS under clinically representative intraoral conditions. Methods: Fifteen participants with no previous experience in intraoral scanning or device operation were recruited. Each participant scanned a maxillary full-dentition typodont model and a mandibular implant-containing typodont model using the Aoralscan 3 IOS. Scans were performed under two conditions: constrained intraoral scanning within a manikin and open-vision extraoral scanning on a bench-top. Trueness accuracy was evaluated using three parameters: the root mean square (RMS) deviation of the maxillary dentition, discrepancies in inter–scan body distances, and angular deviations of the scan bodies, each calculated by comparison with reference data obtained from an industrial-grade scanner. Scan time was recorded to assess time-based efficiency. Results: No significant differences were observed in RMS trueness, inter-implant distances, or implant angular deviations between intraoral and extraoral scans. Extraoral scanning significantly reduced scan times for both maxillary and mandibular models (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Within the limitations of this study, maneuverability constraints alone may not significantly affect IOS trueness accuracy compared with open bench-top scanning. However, scanning efficiency was reduced under intraoral scanning constraints, with longer scan times observed among inexperienced operators. The potential influence of intraoral factors other than maneuverability on IOS accuracy under clinical conditions warrants further investigation.

6 February 2026

Typodont models used in this study: (a) maxillary model with full dentition; (b) mandibular model with implants positioned in the edentulous posterior sites corresponding to teeth 47, 46, and 36; (c) titanium scan body attached to tooth 36. Tooth designations: 36 (mandibular left first molar), 46 (mandibular right first molar), and 47 (mandibular right second molar).
  • Systematic Review
  • Open Access

Background/Objectives: Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) accounting for the majority of cases, primarily Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) and Adenocarcinoma (ADC). The aim of this systematic review is to summarise and critically appraise the performance of machine learning (ML)-based radiomics models in the differential diagnosis and overall survival analysis for lung SCC and ADC. Methods: PRISMA standards were followed in conducting the review. The quality of the studies was assessed using the Radiomics quality score (RQS) tool. Results: A total of 11 studies were included, demonstrating that deep learning and radiomics-based machine learning models significantly improve the non-invasive classification of lung squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Deep learning systems achieved an accuracy of 67–97%, and machine learning models showed an accuracy of 75–87%. The integration of radiomic features further enhanced diagnostic precision, showing strong potential for reliable histologic subtype differentiation. Conclusions: Machine learning-based radiomics models and deep learning significantly enhance the non-invasive, accurate differentiation of lung squamous and adenocarcinoma cell carcinoma when combined with clinical and pathological data.

6 February 2026

Flow chart for study selection.

On the Suitability of Data Augmentation Techniques to Improve Parkinson’s Disease Detection with Speech Recordings

  • Cristian David Ríos-Urrego,
  • Tulio Andrés Ruiz-Romero and
  • Juan Rafael Orozco-Arroyave
  • + 2 authors

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. Speech analysis has emerged as a non-invasive tool for automatic PD detection; however, the scarcity and homogeneity of available datasets often limit the generalization capability of machine learning models, motivating the use of data augmentation strategies to improve robustness. Methods: This study presents a data augmentation-based methodology for speech-based classification between PD patients and healthy control subjects. A deep learning model trained from scratch on Mel spectrograms is evaluated using augmentation techniques applied at both the waveform and time–frequency levels. Multiple training and model selection strategies are analyzed and model performance is assessed through internal validation as well as using an independent dataset Results: Experimental results show that carefully selected data augmentation techniques improve classification performance with respect to the non-augmented counterpart, achieving gains of up to 3% in accuracy. However, when evaluated on an independent dataset, these improvements do not consistently translate into better generalization. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that, while data augmentation can effectively enhance model performance within a single dataset, this apparent robustness is not sufficient to guarantee generalization on independent speech corpora for PD detection.

6 February 2026

General methodology proposed in this study. Blue arrows indicate the data flow from the PC-GITA corpus, while orange arrows represent the independent test set. Elaborated by the authors.

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Diagnostics - ISSN 2075-4418