A binary diagnostic test is a medical test that is applied to an individual in order to determine the presence or the absence of a certain disease and whose result can be positive or negative. A positive result indicates the presence of the disease,...
Use of a case-control design to compare the accuracy of two binary diagnostic tests is frequent in clinical practice. This design consists of applying the two diagnostic tests to all of the individuals in a sample of those who have the disease and in...
Food allergy (FA) affects approximately 6–8% of young children, with a peak prevalence at approximately one year of age. Tree nut and peanut allergies are among the main causes of anaphylaxis in the world. The gold standard for the diagnosis of...
Previous studies have evaluated the effects of antithrombotic agents on the performance of fecal immunochemical tests (FITs) for the detection of colorectal cancer (CRC), but the results were inconsistent and based on small sample sizes. We studied t...
The predictive receiver operating characteristic (PROC) curve differs from the more well-known receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve in that it provides a basis for the evaluation of binary diagnostic tests using metrics defined conditionally...
24 November 2021
People with Parkinson’s disease (PwPD) have an increased risk for falls and near falls. They have particular difficulties with maintaining balance against an external perturbation, and several retropulsion tests exist. The Unified PD Rating Sca...
Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in full-term newborns. This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of the Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), Derived Neutrophil-to-Lymphocy...
In order to assess the clinical and biological criteria that predict gene panel positivity in patients with a suspected inherited genetic autoinflammatory disease, we conducted a case–control study. These new selection criteria could replace th...
Background and Objectives: Immunodeficiency associated with aging comorbidities increases the vulnerability of geriatric patients to sepsis. Early recognition and management of sepsis are essential in this population. This study evaluated the relatio...
The current replication crisis relating to the non-replicability and the untrustworthiness of published empirical evidence is often viewed through the lens of the Positive Predictive Value (PPV) in the context of the Medical Diagnostic Screening (MDS...
Background/Objectives: Diagnosing interstitial pregnancy (IP) using ultrasonography can be challenging, as it is often mistaken for eccentrically located intrauterine pregnancy (IUP). In this retrospective cohort study, we aimed to develop a predicti...
The efficiency of conventional screening programs to identify early-stage malignancies can be limited by the low number of cancers recommended for screening as well as the high cumulative false-positive rate, and associated iatrogenic burden, resulti...
When extreme wind pressure is predicted based on the extreme value distribution theory, the sampling time–distance and sample volume of wind pressure data are important influencing factors. To discuss and analyze the influence of time–dis...
Oral drug provocation tests (DPT) are the basic diagnostic tool for the detection of hypersensitivity to non-opioid analgesics and for selecting a safe alternative for a patient. They are of great practical importance due to their common use, but the...
A vanishing twin (VT) occurs in up to 30% of early diagnosed twin pregnancies and is associated with an increased risk of fetal aneuploidy. Here, we describe our experience in a large VT population of 847 patients that underwent noninvasive prenatal...
Background/Objectives: Frailty is a multidimensional syndrome characterized by diminished physiological reserves, reduced mobility, and increased fall risk. While clinical assessments are commonly used to screen for frailty, they may not capture mino...
Background/Objectives: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of preventable blindness among working-age adults. Early detection through screening programs is essential for managing the condition and preventing visual impairment. In Portugal,...
Several current guidelines recommend imaging in the diagnostic work-up of deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE). The purpose of this retrospective diagnostic test study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of MRI compared to laparoscopy for the id...
Background: Urine cytology remains widely used for surveillance of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer despite well-known limitations in sensitivity, especially for low-grade tumors. Uromonitor®, a molecular assay detecting TERT promoter, FGFR3, a...
Background/Objectives: The implementation of polygenic scores (PGSs) and multifactorial risk assessments (MFRAs) has the potential to enhance breast cancer risk stratification, particularly in carriers of moderate-penetrance pathogenic variants (PVs)...
The predictive receiver operating characteristic (PROC) curve is a diagrammatic format with application in the statistical evaluation of probabilistic disease forecasts. The PROC curve differs from the more well-known receiver operating characteristi...
Background: Cervical cancer prevention in regions with limited access to screening and HPV vaccination necessitates innovative approaches. This study explored the potential of a test-and-treat strategy using mRNA HPV tests to impact cervical cancer p...
23 March 2022
Background: Real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (real time RT-PCR) testing is the gold standard for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infections. However, to expand the testing capacity, new SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests (Ag-RDTs) ha...
11 October 2022
Soccer clubs invest time and money in multidimensional identification practices, but the field implementation is still problematic. The repeated vertical jump test (RVJ), as an alternative to the monodimensional vertical jump, may offer similar progn...
31 August 2020
In these days of 2020, tests for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, and their use in the context of health surveillance of workers, are becoming popular. Nevertheless, their sensitivity and specificity could vary on the basis of the type of test used and o...
This research uses mathematically derived visual logistics to interpret COVID-19 molecular and rapid antigen test (RAgT) performance, determine prevalence boundaries where risk exceeds expectations, and evaluate benefits of recursive testing along ho...
Background: There have been a limited number of quantitative studies on the relationship between coronary artery disease (CAD) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), as measured by cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). Thus, we aimed to investigate...
Background: Exercise testing is key in the risk stratification of patients with heart failure (HF). There are scarce data on its prognostic power in women. Our aim was to assess the predictive value of the heart transplantation (HTx) thresholds in HF...
The time students spend on answering a test item (i.e., response time) and its relationship to performance can vary significantly from one item to another. Thus, using total or average response time across all items to predict overall test performanc...
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated advances in molecular biology and virology, enabling the identification of key biomarkers to differentiate between severe and mild cases. Furthermore, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning...
Diabetic foot infection is the leading cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputations worldwide. In addition, diabetes mellitus and sequela of the disease are increasing in prevalence. In 2017, 9.4% of Americans were diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (...
Coeliac disease (CD) is frequently underdiagnosed with a consequent heavy burden in terms of morbidity and health care costs. Diagnosis of CD is based on the evaluation of symptoms and anti-transglutaminase antibodies IgA (TGA-IgA) levels, with value...
We aimed to measure the diagnostic accuracy of the deep learning model (DLM) for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) on a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) according to culprit artery sorts. From January 2017 to December 2019, we recruited patie...
Preeclampsia (PE) is a prevalent obstetric illness affecting pregnant women worldwide. This comprehensive literature review aims to examine the role of biomarkers and understand the molecular mechanisms underlying PE. The review encompasses studies o...
The exercise electrocardiography test (EET) is still used before coronary angiography in the diagnosis of chronic coronary syndromes. This study aimed to demonstrate the value of the combination of a positive EET with the systemic inflammatory index...
We used clinical parameters to develop a prediction model for the occurrence of urodynamic risk factors for upper urinary tract (UUT) damage during the first year after acute spinal cord injury (SCI). A total of 97 patients underwent urodynamic inves...
To investigate COVID-19 surveillance among pregnant women, the California Genetic Disease Screening Program conducted a screening performance and seroprevalence evaluation of maternal SARS-CoV-2 antibodies detected in banked newborn dried blood spots...
Objective: To evaluate the prognostic utility of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) and Simplified Acute Physiology Score 3 (SAPS 3) in COVID-19 patients and assess whether incorporating C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin, lactate, a...
Luminal B breast cancer (LBBC) represents an aggressive, high-grade ER+ disease, associated with a high proliferation rate, higher mutation burden, and higher probability of eliciting the immune response. Clinical and pathological data from 89 patien...
In today’s world, advanced technologies are indispensable. In the field of mining, the use of machine-learning techniques is a reliable and productive way to solve various problems. This article touches upon the issues of increasing the recover...
Atypical fetal chromosomal anomalies are more frequent than previously recognized and can affect fetal development. We propose a screening strategy for a genome-wide non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) to detect these atypical chromosomal anomalies (AC...
Background: This study aimed to evaluate the association between initial fibrinogen levels and massive transfusion (MT) in emergency department (ED) patients with primary postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in...
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are already being used in various healthcare areas. Similarly, they can offer many advantages in hospital emergency services. The objective of this work is to demonstrate that through the novel use of AI, a traine...
Background/Objectives: Patients with dementia present with feeding difficulties (FDs) since diagnosis, conditioning their progression. Early identification is vital for preventing deterioration due to nutritional problems. The Edinburgh Feeding Evalu...
Background: Serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels and antral follicle count are key in evaluating ovarian reserve (OR) for fertility. The performance of the Siemens Healthineers AMH assay was assessed on the ADVIA Centaur® System. Method...
Background/Objectives: MRI is the gold standard for detecting meniscal tears; however, ultrasound may readily detect meniscal changes, obviating the need for MRI. We aim to (1) determine ultrasound sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value...
Objectives: Lung cancer remains as the most common cause of cancer-related death. The possible relationships between inflammatory markers and lung cancer prognosis have yet to be clarified. In this study, we aimed to assess and compare various inflam...
We aimed to retrospectively analyze consecutive prostate cancer patients diagnosed with biochemical or clinical recurrence after local treatment with curative intent, with no evidence of distant metastases, who underwent positron emission tomography/...
Breast cancer recurrence is an important outcome for patients and healthcare systems, but it is not routinely reported in cancer registries. We developed an algorithm to identify patients who experienced recurrence or a second case of primary breast...
Although the prognosis of tonsillar cancer (human papillomavirus-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma) is improving, disease control failure (distant metastasis) still occurs in some cases. We explored whether several 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose...
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