| 61. |
|
|
| 62. |
- Ahlroth Pind, Caroline, et al.
(författare)
-
Patient-reported signs of dampness at home may be a risk factor for chronic rhinosinusitis : A cross-sectional study
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Clinical and Experimental Allergy. - Hoboken : Wiley. - 0954-7894 .- 1365-2222. ; 47:11, s. 1383-1389
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: An association between dampness at home and respiratory conditions has been convincingly demonstrated in children. Fewer studies have been performed in adults, and data are lacking for chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). With a prevalence of 10.9% in Europe, CRS imposes a significant burden on quality of life, as well as economy.OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to study CRS and other respiratory conditions in relation to dampness at home in a representative sample of adults.METHODS: The Swedish GA2 LEN questionnaire was answered by 26 577 adults (16-75 years) and included questions on respiratory symptoms, smoking, education and environmental exposure. CRS was defined according to the EP3 OS criteria. Dampness was defined as reporting water damage, floor dampness or visible moulds in the home during the last 12 months. The dampness score was ranked from 0 to 3, counting the number of signs of dampness reported.RESULTS: Dampness at home was reported by 11.3% and was independently related to respiratory conditions after adjustment for demographic and socio-economic factors and smoking: CRS odds ratio (OR) 1.71; allergic rhinitis OR 1.24; current asthma OR 1.21; wheeze OR 1.37; nocturnal dyspnoea OR 1.80; nocturnal coughing OR 1.34; and chronic bronchitis OR 1.64. The risk of CRS and most of the other respiratory conditions was further elevated in subjects reporting multiple signs of dampness.CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study demonstrated an independent association between dampness at home and CRS in adults. The high burden of this and the other respiratory conditions studied is a strong argument in favour of countering indoor dampness by improving building standards.
|
|
| 63. |
- Ahlsson, Anders, 1962-, et al.
(författare)
-
A Swedish consensus on the surgical treatment of concomitant atrial fibrillation
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal. - London, United Kingdom : Informa Healthcare. - 1401-7431 .- 1651-2006. ; 46:4, s. 212-218
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia among patients scheduled for open heart surgery and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. According to international guidelines, symptomatic and selected asymptomatic patients should be offered concomitant surgical AF ablation in conjunction with valvular or coronary surgery. The gold standard in AF surgery is the Cox Maze III ("cut-and-sew") procedure, with surgical incisions in both atria according to a specified pattern, in order to prevent AF reentry circuits from developing. Over 90% of patients treated with the Cox Maze III procedure are free of AF after 1 year. Recent developments in ablation technology have introduced several energy sources capable of creating nonconducting atrial wall lesions. In addition, simplified lesion patterns have been suggested, but results with these techniques have been unsatisfactory. There is a clear need for standardization in AF surgery. The Swedish Arrhythmia Surgery Group, represented by surgeons from all Swedish units for cardiothoracic surgery, has therefore reached a consensus on surgical treatment of concomitant AF. This consensus emphasizes adherence to the lesion pattern in the Cox Maze III procedure and the use of biatrial lesions in nonparoxysmal AF.
|
|
| 64. |
- Ahlström, Katarina, 1966, et al.
(författare)
-
Exogenous carbon monoxide does not affect cell membrane energy availability assessed by sarcolemmal calcium fluxes during myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion in the pig
- 2011
-
Ingår i: European Journal of Anaesthesiology. - 0265-0215 .- 1365-2346. ; 28:5, s. 356-362
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Carbon monoxide is thought to be cytoprotective and may hold therapeutic promise for mitigating ischaemic injury. The purpose of this study was to test low-dose carbon monoxide for protective effects in a porcine model of acute myocardial ischaemia and reperfusion. In acute open-thorax experiments in anaesthetised pigs, pretreatment with low-dose carbon monoxide (5% increase in carboxyhaemoglobin) was conducted for 120 min before localised ischaemia (45 min) and reperfusion (60 min) was performed using a coronary snare. Metabolic and injury markers were collected by microdialysis sampling in the ventricular wall. Recovery of radio-marked calcium delivered locally by microperfusate was measured to assess carbon monoxide treatment effects during ischaemia/reperfusion on the intracellular calcium pool. Coronary occlusion and ischaemia/reperfusion were analysed for 16 animals (eight in each group). Changes in glucose, lactate and pyruvate from the ischaemic area were observed during ischaemia and reperfusion interventions, though there was no difference between carbon monoxide-treated and control groups during ischaemia or reperfusion. Similar results were observed for glycerol and microdialysate Ca-45(2+) recovery. These findings show that a relatively low and clinically relevant dose of carbon monoxide did not seem to provide acute protection as indicated by metabolic, energy-related and injury markers in a porcine myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion experimental model. We conclude that protective effects of carbon monoxide related to ischaemia/reperfusion either require higher doses of carbon monoxide or occur later after reperfusion than the immediate time frame studied here. More study is needed to characterise the mechanism and time frame of carbon monoxide-related cytoprotection.
|
|
| 65. |
- Ahlström, Katarina, 1966, et al.
(författare)
-
Metabolic responses in ischemic myocardium after inhalation of carbon monoxide.
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. - : Wiley. - 1399-6576 .- 0001-5172. ; 53:8, s. 1036-42
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: To clarify the mechanisms of carbon monoxide (CO) tissue-protective effects, we studied energy metabolism in an animal model of acute coronary occlusion and pre-treatment with CO. METHODS: In anesthetized pigs, a coronary snare and microdialysis probes were placed. CO (carboxyhemoglobin 5%) was inhaled for 200 min in test animals, followed by 40 min of coronary occlusion. Microdialysate was analyzed for lactate and glucose, and myocardial tissue samples were analyzed for adenosine tri-phosphate, adenosine di-phosphate, and adenosine mono-phosphate. RESULTS: Lactate during coronary occlusion was approximately half as high in CO pre-treated animals and glucose levels decreased to a much lesser degree during ischemia. Energy charge was no different between groups. CONCLUSIONS: CO in the low-doses tested in this model results in a more favorable energy metabolic condition in that glycolysis is decreased in spite of maintained energy charge. Further work is warranted to clarify the possible mechanistic role of energy metabolism for CO protection.
|
|
| 66. |
- Ahluwalia, T. S., et al.
(författare)
-
Genome-wide association study of circulating interleukin 6 levels identifies novel loci
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Human molecular genetics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0964-6906 .- 1460-2083. ; 30:5, s. 393-409
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine with both pro- and anti-inflammatory properties with a heritability estimate of up to 61%. The circulating levels of IL-6 in blood have been associated with an increased risk of complex disease pathogenesis. We conducted a two-staged, discovery and replication meta genome-wide association study (GWAS) of circulating serum IL-6 levels comprising up to 67428 (n(discovery)=52654 and n(replication)=14774) individuals of European ancestry. The inverse variance fixed effects based discovery meta-analysis, followed by replication led to the identification of two independent loci, IL1F10/IL1RN rs6734238 on chromosome (Chr) 2q14, (P-combined=1.8x10(-11)), HLA-DRB1/DRB5 rs660895 on Chr6p21 (P-combined=1.5x10(-10)) in the combined meta-analyses of all samples. We also replicated the IL6R rs4537545 locus on Chr1q21 (P-combined=1.2x10(-122)). Our study identifies novel loci for circulating IL-6 levels uncovering new immunological and inflammatory pathways that may influence IL-6 pathobiology.
|
|
| 67. |
- Ahmad, I., et al.
(författare)
-
Validity of diagnoses, treatment dates, and rating scales in the Swedish national quality register for electroconvulsive therapy
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Psychiatry. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0803-9488 .- 1502-4725. ; 76:2, s. 96-103
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background The Swedish national quality register for electroconvulsive therapy (Q-ECT) contains data on patients receiving treatment with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in Sweden. Aim This study determined the validity of diagnoses, treatment dates, and rating scales in the Q-ECT by investigating the degree of accordance between data from the Q-ECT and patient records. Materials and methods From January 2016 to December 2017, 200 treatment series were randomly selected from the Q-ECT. The corresponding patient records were requested from the treating hospitals. Data on the indicative diagnosis, dates for the first and the last ECT session, and rating scales were compared between the Q-ECT and patient records using (i) a strict and (ii) a liberal method of assessment. Using the liberal method, each variable was assessed as accordant if it belonged to the same diagnosis group, or if the dates differed by less than 1 week, or ratings differed by only 1 point on the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI- S), or no more than 3 points on the Montgomery angstrom sberg Depression Rating Scale between the Q-ECT and the patient record. Results A total of 179 patient records were received. The strict method of assessment showed an accordance of 89% or higher for all studied variables. The liberal method showed an accordance of 95% or higher. Conclusions We conclude that data on the studied variables in the Q-ECT have high validity. However, limited use of some rating scales makes the results uncertain. Measures can be taken to further improve the data quality.
|
|
| 68. |
- Ahmad, Nouman, et al.
(författare)
-
Automatic segmentation of large-scale CT image datasets for detailed body composition analysis
- 2023
-
Ingår i: BMC BIOINFORMATICS. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1471-2105. ; 24:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundBody composition (BC) is an important factor in determining the risk of type 2-diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Computed tomography (CT) is a useful imaging technique for studying BC, however manual segmentation of CT images is time-consuming and subjective. The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate fully automated segmentation techniques applicable to a 3-slice CT imaging protocol, consisting of single slices at the level of the liver, abdomen, and thigh, allowing detailed analysis of numerous tissues and organs.MethodsThe study used more than 4000 CT subjects acquired from the large-scale SCAPIS and IGT cohort to train and evaluate four convolutional neural network based architectures: ResUNET, UNET++, Ghost-UNET, and the proposed Ghost-UNET++. The segmentation techniques were developed and evaluated for automated segmentation of the liver, spleen, skeletal muscle, bone marrow, cortical bone, and various adipose tissue depots, including visceral (VAT), intraperitoneal (IPAT), retroperitoneal (RPAT), subcutaneous (SAT), deep (DSAT), and superficial SAT (SSAT), as well as intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT). The models were trained and validated for each target using tenfold cross-validation and test sets.ResultsThe Dice scores on cross validation in SCAPIS were: ResUNET 0.964 (0.909-0.996), UNET++ 0.981 (0.927-0.996), Ghost-UNET 0.961 (0.904-0.991), and Ghost-UNET++ 0.968 (0.910-0.994). All four models showed relatively strong results, however UNET++ had the best performance overall. Ghost-UNET++ performed competitively compared to UNET++ and showed a more computationally efficient approach.ConclusionFully automated segmentation techniques can be successfully applied to a 3-slice CT imaging protocol to analyze multiple tissues and organs related to BC. The overall best performance was achieved by UNET++, against which Ghost-UNET++ showed competitive results based on a more computationally efficient approach. The use of fully automated segmentation methods can reduce analysis time and provide objective results in large-scale studies of BC.
|
|
| 69. |
- Ahmad, Nouman, et al.
(författare)
-
Voxel-wise body composition analysis using image registration of a three-slice CT imaging protocol : methodology and proof-of-concept studies
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Biomedical engineering online. - : Springer Nature. - 1475-925X. ; 23:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Computed tomography (CT) is an imaging modality commonly used for studies of internal body structures and very useful for detailed studies of body composition. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a fully automatic image registration framework for inter-subject CT slice registration. The aim was also to use the results, in a set of proof-of-concept studies, for voxel-wise statistical body composition analysis (Imiomics) of correlations between imaging and non-imaging data.Methods The current study utilized three single-slice CT images of the liver, abdomen, and thigh from two large cohort studies, SCAPIS and IGT. The image registration method developed and evaluated used both CT images together with image-derived tissue and organ segmentation masks. To evaluate the performance of the registration method, a set of baseline 3-single-slice CT images (from 2780 subjects including 8285 slices) from the SCAPIS and IGT cohorts were registered. Vector magnitude and intensity magnitude error indicating inverse consistency were used for evaluation. Image registration results were further used for voxel-wise analysis of associations between the CT images (as represented by tissue volume from Hounsfield unit and Jacobian determinant) and various explicit measurements of various tissues, fat depots, and organs collected in both cohort studies.Results Our findings demonstrated that the key organs and anatomical structures were registered appropriately. The evaluation parameters of inverse consistency, such as vector magnitude and intensity magnitude error, were on average less than 3 mm and 50 Hounsfield units. The registration followed by Imiomics analysis enabled the examination of associations between various explicit measurements (liver, spleen, abdominal muscle, visceral adipose tissue (VAT), subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), thigh SAT, intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT), and thigh muscle) and the voxel-wise image information.Conclusion The developed and evaluated framework allows accurate image registrations of the collected three single-slice CT images and enables detailed voxel-wise studies of associations between body composition and associated diseases and risk factors.
|
|
| 70. |
- Ahmed, Ali, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
-
Religious Context and Prosociality: An Experimental Study from Valparaiso, Chile
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. - : Wiley. - 0021-8294 .- 1468-5906. ; 52:3, s. 627-637
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Are people more prosocial in a religious context? We addressed this question through an experiment. We randomly placed participants in the control group in a neutral location (a lecture hall), and we placed participants in the experimental group in a religious location (a chapel). The participants then took part in a one-shot three-person public goods game, which measured participants' degree of cooperativeness. The results showed that participants in the experimental group cooperated significantly more than did participants in the control group. Furthermore, participants' beliefs about other participants' cooperativeness were more positive in the experimental group than they were in the control group. Improved expectations of others partially explained the enhanced cooperation in the religious context. We found no main or interaction effect of self-reported religiosity in the experiment.
|
|
