Colorectal Cancer is one of the most common cancers found in human beings, and polyps are the predecessor of this cancer. Accurate Computer-Aided polyp detection and segmentation system can help endoscopists to detect abnormal tissues and polyps during colonoscopy examination, thereby reducing the chance of polyps growing into cancer. Many of the existing techniques fail to delineate the polyps accurately and produce a noisy/broken output map if the shape and size of the polyp are irregular or small. We propose an end-to-end pixel-wise polyp segmentation model named Guided Attention Residual Network (GAR-Net) by combining the power of both residual blocks and attention mechanisms to obtain a refined continuous segmentation map. An enhanced Residual Block is proposed that suppresses the noise and captures low-level feature maps, thereby facilitating information flow for a more accurate semantic segmentation. We propose a special learning technique with a novel attention mechanism called Guided Attention Learning that can capture the refined attention maps both in earlier and deeper layers regardless of the size and shape of the polyp. To study the effectiveness of the proposed GAR-Net, various experiments were carried out on two benchmark collections viz., CVC-ClinicDB (CVC-612) and Kvasir-SEG dataset. From the experimental evaluations, it is shown that GAR-Net outperforms other previously proposed models such as FCN8, SegNet, U-Net, U-Net with Gated Attention, ResUNet, and DeepLabv3. Our proposed model achieves 91% Dice co-efficient and 83.12% mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) on the benchmark CVC-ClinicDB (CVC-612) dataset and 89.15% dice co-efficient and 81.58% mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) on the Kvasir-SEG dataset. The proposed GAR-Net model provides a robust solution for polyp segmentation from colonoscopy video frames. Full article

SARS-CoV-2 infection may cause such complications as post-COVID-19 syndrome, which includes chronic fatigue, myalgia, arthralgia, as well as a variety of neurological manifestations, e.g., neuropathy of small fibers, hearing and vestibular dysfunction, and cognitive impairment. This clinical case describes a 41-year-old patient suffering from post-COVID-19 syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome. A detailed examination was performed, including an in-depth study of peripheral and central hearing and vestibular functions, as well as small nerve fibers length and density in the skin and cornea of the eye. Contrary to expectations, no peripheral nervous system dysfunction was detected, despite the presence of dizziness and gait instability in the patient. Hearing tests (gap detection test and dichotic test) showed central auditory processing disorders. The evaluated lesion in the processing of temporal and verbal auditory information can be a significant factor contributing to additional overload of the neural activity and leading to chronic fatigue when performing daily activities in patients with CFS and post-COVID-19 complications. Full article

Background: The progression of infectious diseases depends on the characteristics of a patient’s innate immunity, and the efficiency of an immune system depends on the patient’s genetic factors, including SNPs in the TLR genes. In this pilot study, we determined the frequency of alleles in these SNPs in a subset of patients with pneumonia. Methods: This study assessed six SNPs from TLR genes: rs5743551 (TLR1), rs5743708, rs3804100 (TLR2), rs4986790 (TLR4), rs5743810 (TLR6), and rs3764880 (TLR8). Three groups of patients participated in this study: patients with pneumonia in 2019 (76 samples), patients with pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 in 2021 (85 samples), and the control group (99 samples). Results: The allele and genotype frequencies obtained for each group were examined using four genetic models. Significant results were obtained when comparing the samples obtained from individuals with pneumonia before the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and from the controls for rs5743551 (TLR1) and rs3764880 (TLR8). Additionally, the comparison of COVID-19-related pneumonia cases and the control group revealed a significant result for rs3804100-G (TLR2). Conclusions: Determining SNP allele frequencies and searching for their associations with the course of pneumonia are important for personalized patient management. However, our results need to be comprehensively assessed in consideration of other clinical parameters. Full article

COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) in children is usually mild. However, multiple organ disorders associated with SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2) have been detected with poor respiratory symptoms. Cardiac changes are noted in 17% to 75% of cases, which are associated with diagnostic difficulties in high-risk groups for the development of complications that are associated with myocardial damage by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The objective of this review is to identify the most significant symptoms of cardiac involvement affected by COVID-19, which require in-depth examination. The authors analyzed publications from December 2019 to the October 2022, which were published in accessible local and international databases. According to the analysis data, the main sign of myocardial involvement was increasing as cardiomarkers in the patient’s blood, in particular troponin I or troponin T. Many authors noted that the increased level of CRP (C-reactive protein) and NT-proBNP, which are accompanied by changes in the ECG (electrocardiogram) and EchoCG (echocardiography), as a rule, were nonspecific. However, the identified cardiac functional dysfunctions affected by SARS-CoV-2, required an cardiac MRI. The lack of timely diagnosis of myocardial involvements, especially in children at high risk for the development of complications associated with SARS-CoV-2 myocardial injury, can lead to death. The direct damage of the structural elements of myocardial blood vessels in patients with severe hypoxic changes resulted from respiratory failure caused by SARS-CoV-2 lung damage, with the development of severe acute diffuse alveolar damage and cell-mediated immune response and myocardial involvement affected by SARS-CoV-2 damage. In this article, the authors introduce a clinical case of a child who dead from inflammatory myocardities with COVID-19 in a background of congenital heart disease and T-cell immunodeficiency. Full article

Background: Early in the pandemic, we established COVID-19 Recovery and Engagement (CORE) Clinics in the Bronx and implemented a detailed evaluation protocol to assess physical, emotional, and cognitive function, pulmonary function tests, and imaging for COVID-19 survivors. Here, we report our findings up to five months post-acute COVID-19. Methods: Main outcomes and measures included pulmonary function tests, imaging tests, and a battery of symptom, physical, emotional, and cognitive assessments 5 months post-acute COVID-19. Findings: Dyspnea, fatigue, decreased exercise tolerance, brain fog, and shortness of breath were the most common symptoms but there were generally no significant differences between hospitalized and non-hospitalized cohorts (p > 0.05). Many patients had abnormal physical, emotional, and cognitive scores, but most functioned independently; there were no significant differences between hospitalized and non-hospitalized cohorts (p > 0.05). Six-minute walk tests, lung ultrasound, and diaphragm excursion were abnormal but only in the hospitalized cohort. Pulmonary function tests showed moderately restrictive pulmonary function only in the hospitalized cohort but no obstructive pulmonary function. Newly detected major neurological events, microvascular disease, atrophy, and white-matter changes were rare, but lung opacity and fibrosis-like findings were common after acute COVID-19. Interpretation: Many COVID-19 survivors experienced moderately restrictive pulmonary function, and significant symptoms across the physical, emotional, and cognitive health domains. Newly detected brain imaging abnormalities were rare, but lung imaging abnormalities were common. This study provides insights into post-acute sequelae following SARS-CoV-2 infection in neurological and pulmonary systems which may be used to support at-risk patients and develop effective screening methods and interventions. Full article

Breast cancer prevention is an important health issue for women worldwide. In this study, we compared the conventional breast cancer screening exams of mammography and ultrasound with the novel approaches of passive microwave radiometry (MWR) and microRNA (miRNA) analysis. While mammography screening dynamics could be completed in 3–6 months, MWR provided a prediction in a matter of weeks or even days. Moreover, MWR has the potential of being complemented with miRNA diagnostics to further improve its predictive quality. These novel techniques can be used alone or in conjunction with more established techniques to improve early breast cancer diagnosis. Full article

We compared diagnostic performances between radiologists with reference to clinical information and standalone artificial intelligence (AI) detection of breast cancer on digital mammography. This study included 392 women (average age: 57.3 ± 12.1 years, range: 30–94 years) diagnosed with malignancy between January 2010 and June 2021 who underwent digital mammography prior to biopsy. Two radiologists assessed mammographic findings based on clinical symptoms and prior mammography. All mammographies were analyzed via AI. Breast cancer detection performance was compared between radiologists and AI based on how the lesion location was concordant between each analysis method (radiologists or AI) and pathological results. Kappa coefficient was used to measure the concordance between radiologists or AI analysis and pathology results. Binominal logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors influencing the concordance between radiologists’ analysis and pathology results. Overall, the concordance was higher in radiologists’ diagnosis than on AI analysis (kappa coefficient: 0.819 vs. 0.698). Impact of prior mammography (odds ratio (OR): 8.55, p < 0.001), clinical symptom (OR: 5.49, p < 0.001), and fatty breast density (OR: 5.18, p = 0.008) were important factors contributing to the concordance of lesion location between radiologists’ diagnosis and pathology results. Full article

Background: Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease, and differences in outcomes have been reported among patients diagnosed with the same disease stage. Prognostic and predictive biomarkers provide information for patient risk stratification and guide treatment selection. Although numerous studies have analyzed the effects of systemic inflammatory factors on CRC outcomes, clinical significance remains to be elucidated. In particular, the treatment strategy of colon cancer patients is different from that of rectal cancer due to outcome and recurrence differences. The identification of patients with a poor prognosis who might benefit from intensive treatment approaches is clinically necessary. Methods: This study aimed to evaluate the value of different blood-based markers and assess the significance of our newly developed inflammatory-nutrition-related biomarker (NCR = BMI × albumin/CRP) in patients with colon cancer. A two-stage design was used with 212 patients with colon cancer (CC) in the discovery cohort (n = 159) and in an external validation cohort (n = 53). Results: A lower preoperative NCR level was significantly correlated with a worse prognosis, sidedness, undifferentiated histology, nodal involvement, and advanced UICC stage. We compared the NCR with other established prognostic indices and showed that the NCR is a more reliable indicator of a poor prognosis for patients with CC. Patients with low NCR levels experienced a significantly shorter Overall Survival (OS) than patients with high levels. Multivariate analysis confirmed preoperative NCR levels as an independent predictor for overall survival with a hazard ratio of 3.3 (95% confidence interval 1.628–6.709, p < 0.001). Finally, we confirmed the predictive value of the NCR in an independent validation cohort and confirmed NCR as an independent prognostic factor for OS. Conclusion: Taken together, we discovered a new prognostic index (NCR) based on BMI, albumin, and CRP levels as an independent prognostic predictor of OS in patients with colon cancer. In all UICC stages, our newly developed NCR marker is able to distinguish patients with better and worse prognoses. We, therefore, propose that NCR may serve as a supplement to the TNM staging system to optimize the risk stratification in CC patients towards personalized oncology. In particular, NCR can be used in clinical trials to stratify patients with UICC II and III tumors and help better select patients who might benefit from adjuvant treatment. Full article

Osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) are common injuries in elderly patients and are usually stable because only the anterior column is involved. However, neurological deterioration may complicate osteoporotic VCFs, and most of them are related to canal invasion. Liver cirrhosis (LC) and its related complications have been identified as risk factors for an increased bleeding tendency, which, in turn, is associated with increased morbidity and mortality risks. We herein present a rare case of an osteoporotic VCF and a massive psoas hematoma that resulted in lumbar plexus palsy in a patient with LC after a stable-type spinal injury. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of lumbar plexus palsy attributed to a liver-cirrhosis-related massive psoas hematoma and a stable VCF after minor trauma. This case highlights the potential risk of severe neurological deficits related to this type of common and seemingly trivial injury. The possible pathophysiological mechanisms are discussed and the relevant literature is reviewed. Full article

(1) Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) raises concerns to contribute to an increased mortality. The incidence of CAPA varies widely within hospitals and countries, partly because of difficulties in obtaining a reliable diagnosis. (2) Methods: Here, we assessed Aspergillus culture-positive and culture-negative respiratory tract specimens via direct fungal microscopy (gold standard) and compared the results with galactomannan enzyme immunoassay (GM-EIA) and Aspergillus PCR. (3) Results: 241 respiratory samples from patients suffering from SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia were evaluated. Results showed both diagnostic tools, Aspergillus PCR and GM-EIA, to be positive or negative displaying a sensitivity of 0.90, a specificity of 0.77, a negative predictive value (NPV) of 0.95, and a positive predictive value (PPV) of 0.58 in Aspergillus sp. culture and microscopic-positive specimens. Non-bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples, obtained within a few days from the same patient, showed a high frequency of intermittent positive or negative GM-EIA or Aspergillus PCR results. Positivity of a single biomarker is insufficient for a proper diagnosis. A broad spectrum of Aspergillus species was detected. (4) Conclusions: Our study highlights the challenges of combined biomarker testing as part of diagnosing CAPA. From the results presented, we highly recommend the additional performance of direct microscopy in respiratory specimens to avoid overestimation of fungal infections by applying biomarkers. Full article

Eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EoGE) is a rare digestive disorder characterized by eosinophilic infiltration of the stomach and intestines. In the diagnosis of EoE, it is extremely important to recognize distinctive endoscopic findings and accurately detect increased eosinophilia in gastrointestinal tissues. However, endoscopic findings of EoGE in the small intestine remain poorly understood. Therefore, we conducted a literature review of 16 eligible papers. Redness or erythema was the most common endoscopic finding in the small bowel, followed by villous atrophy, erosion, ulceration, and edema. In some cases, stenosis due to circumferential ulceration was observed, which led to retention of the capsule during small bowel capsule endoscopy. Although many aspects of small bowel endoscopic findings in EoGE remain elusive, the findings presented in this review are expected to contribute to the further development of EoGE practice. Full article

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the most common malignant epithelial neoplasm affecting the oral cavity. While surgical resection is the cornerstone of a multimodal curative approach, some tumors are deemed recurrent or metastatic (R/M) and often not suitable for curative surgery. This mainly occurs due to the extent of lesions or when surgery is expected to result in poor functional outcomes. Amongst the main non-surgical therapeutic options for oral squamous cell carcinoma are radiotherapy, chemotherapy, molecular targeted agents, and immunotherapy. Depending on the disease setting, these therapeutic approaches can be used isolated or in combination, with distinct efficacy and side effects. All these factors must be considered for treatment decisions within a multidisciplinary approach. The present article reviews the evidence regarding the treatment of patients with R/M oral squamous cell carcinoma. The main goal is to provide an overview of available treatment options and address future therapeutic perspectives. Full article

Background: The usefulness of ¹⁸FDG PET/CT scan in the evaluation of thymic epithelial tumours (TETs) has been reported by several authors, but data are still limited and its application in clinical practice is far from being defined. Methods: We performed a narrative review of pertinent literature in order to clarify the role of ¹⁸FDG PET/CT in the prediction of TET histology and to discuss clinical implications and future perspectives. Results: There is only little evidence that ¹⁸FDG PET/CT scan may distinguish thymic hyperplasia from thymic epithelial tumours. On the other hand, it seems to discriminate well thymomas from carcinomas and, even more, to predict the grade of malignancy (WHO classes). To this end, SUVmax and other PET variables (i.e., the ratio between SUVmax and tumour dimensions) have been adopted, with good results. Finally, however promising, the future of PET/CT and theranostics in TETs is far from being defined; more robust analysis of imaging texture on thymic neoplasms, as well as new exploratory studies with “stromal PET tracers,” are ongoing. Conclusions: PET may play a role in predicting histology in TETs and help physicians in the management of these insidious malignancies. Full article

Cor triatriatum sinister is a rare congenital heart disease characterized by an additional fibromuscular membrane in the left atrium. Cardioembolic stroke is a rare complication of cor triatriatum sinister, especially among women. We hereby describe the case of an 18-year-old female patient, without a past medical history, presenting with cardioembolic stroke in the territory of the right posterior cerebral artery. During extensive diagnostic work-up, nonrestrictive cor triatriatum sinister and patent foramen ovale were diagnosed using transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography. In clinical practice, it is important to identify congenital cardiac defects as potential substrates for cardioembolism in young patients. In our case, cor triatriatum sinister presenting as ischemic stroke was diagnosed, which is an uncommon finding, especially in young females. Determining the optimal management strategy for patients with cor triatriatum sinister complicated by cardioembolic stroke requires a multidisciplinary approach. Full article

A review of the literature indicated that the greatest prognostic value for predicting motor impairment in high-risk infants is the absence of fidgety movements (FMs) at 3 months of post-term age. The purpose of the present study was to characterize a new posturometric test (PT) based on a center-of-pressure (CoP) movement analysis, in terms of design and construct validity, for the detection of postural control disturbances in pre-term infants. The comparative studies were carried out between pre-term infants who presented normal FMs (18 participants) and infants with absent FMs (19 participants), which consisted of the analysis of the CoP trajectory and CoP area in supine and prone positions using the force platform. New PT was performed simultaneously with GMs recorded using a force platform. Statistical analyses revealed significant differences between the groups of infants who presented absent FMs and normal FMs for almost all CoP parameters describing spontaneous sway in the supine position. Based on these preliminary results, it can be concluded, that the application of PT based on the analysis of CoP trajectory, area, and velocity in the supine position has been demonstrated to be valid for the detection of postural control disturbances in pre-term infants. Full article