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- 2019
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 2. |
- Chen, Hongjian, et al.
(författare)
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On the Development of a Novel Contrast Pulse Sequence for Polymer-Shelled Microbubbles
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control. - 0885-3010 .- 1525-8955.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Contrast agents are routinely used in ultrasound examinations. Nonlinear ultrasound imaging techniques have been developed over decades to enhance the contrast between the tissue and the blood pool after the injection of ultrasound contrast agents. In this study, we introduce a new contrast pulse sequence, CPS4. The CPS4 combines pulse inversion, sub-harmonic, and ultra-harmonic techniques to remove propagation distortion while capturing the unique sub-harmonic, and ultra-harmonic responses from ultrasound contrast agents. The novel CPS4 and conventional pulse inversion, sub-harmonic, and ultra-harmonic techniques were used to detect the presence of a research-grade, thick shell, polymer microbubble in a tissue-mimicking flow phantom. The contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR) obtained from the applications of all techniques were compared. The results show that the highest CTR of approximately 16 dB was obtained using CPS4, which was superior to the individual reference techniques: pulse inversion, sub-harmonic, and ultra-harmonic techniques, at all scenarios considered in this study.
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| 3. |
- Chen, Hongjian, et al.
(författare)
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On the Development of a Novel Contrast Pulse Sequence for Polymer-Shelled Microbubbles
- 2021
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). - 0885-3010 .- 1525-8955. ; 68:5, s. 1569-1579
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Contrast agents are routinely used in ultrasound examinations. Nonlinear ultrasound imaging techniques have been developed over decades to enhance the contrast between the tissue and the blood pool after the injection of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs). In this study, we introduce a new contrast pulse sequence, CPS4. The CPS4 combines pulse inversion (PI), subharmonic (SH), and ultraharmonic (UH) techniques to remove propagation distortion while capturing the unique SH and UH responses from UCAs. The novel CPS4 and conventional PI, SH, and UH techniques were used to detect the presence of a research-grade, thick-shell, polymer microbubble in a tissue-mimicking flow phantom. The contrast-to-tissue ratios (CTRs) obtained from the applications of all techniques were compared. The results show that the highest CTR of approximately 16 dB was obtained using CPS4, which was superior to the individual reference techniques: PI, SH, and UH techniques, in all scenarios considered in this study.
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| 4. |
- Dragioti, Elena, Ph.D., et al.
(författare)
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Association of Antidepressant Use With Adverse Health Outcomes A Systematic Umbrella Review
- 2019
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Ingår i: JAMA psychiatry. - Chicago, IL, United States : AMER MEDICAL ASSOC. - 2168-6238 .- 2168-622X. ; 76:12, s. 1241-1255
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- This umbrella review searches PubMed, Scopus, and PsycINFO to summarize and grade the strength of evidence of the associations between antidepressants and adverse outcomes reported in multiple meta-analyses. Importance Antidepressant use is increasing worldwide. Yet, contrasting evidence on the safety of antidepressants is available from meta-analyses, and the credibility of these findings has not been quantified. Objective To grade the evidence from published meta-analyses of observational studies that assessed the association between antidepressant use or exposure and adverse health outcomes. Data Sources PubMed, Scopus, and PsycINFO were searched from database inception to April 5, 2019. Evidence Review Only meta-analyses of observational studies with a cohort or case-control study design were eligible. Two independent reviewers recorded the data and assessed the methodological quality of the included meta-analyses. Evidence of association was ranked according to established criteria as follows: convincing, highly suggestive, suggestive, weak, or not significant. Results Forty-five meta-analyses (17.9%) from 4471 studies identified and 252 full-text articles scrutinized were selected that described 120 associations, including data from 1012 individual effect size estimates. Seventy-four (61.7%) of the 120 associations were nominally statistically significant at P <= .05 using random-effects models. Fifty-two associations (43.4%) had large heterogeneity (I-2 > 50%), whereas small-study effects were found for 17 associations (14.2%) and excess significance bias was found for 9 associations (7.5%). Convincing evidence emerged from both main and sensitivity analyses for the association between antidepressant use and risk of suicide attempt or completion among children and adolescents, autism spectrum disorders with antidepressant exposure before and during pregnancy, preterm birth, and low Apgar scores. None of these associations remained supported by convincing evidence after sensitivity analysis, which adjusted for confounding by indication. Conclusions and Relevance This studys findings suggest that most putative adverse health outcomes associated with antidepressant use may not be supported by convincing evidence, and confounding by indication may alter the few associations with convincing evidence. Antidepressant use appears to be safe for the treatment of psychiatric disorders, but more studies matching for underlying disease are needed to clarify the degree of confounding by indication and other biases. No absolute contraindication to antidepressants emerged from this umbrella review. Question Is antidepressant use associated with adverse health outcomes, and how credible is the evidence behind this association in published meta-analyses of real-world data? Findings In this systematic umbrella review of 45 meta-analyses of observational studies, convincing evidence was found for the associations between antidepressant use and suicide attempt or completion among individuals younger than 19 years and between antidepressant use and autism risk among the offspring. However, none of these associations remained at the convincing evidence level after a sensitivity analysis that adjusted for confounding by indication. Meaning This studys findings suggest that claimed adverse health outcomes associated with antidepressants may not be supported by strong evidence and may be exaggerated by confounding by indication; no absolute contraindication to the use of antidepressants was found to be currently supported by convincing evidence.
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| 5. |
- Lagopati, Nefeli, et al.
(författare)
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Biological Effect of Silver-modified Nanostructured Titanium Dioxide in Cancer
- 2021
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Ingår i: Cancer Genomics & Proteomics. - : Anticancer Research USA Inc.. - 1109-6535 .- 1790-6245. ; 18:3, s. 425-439
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND/AIM: Nanomedicine is a promising scientific field that exploits the unique properties of innovative nanomaterials, providing alternative solutions in diagnostics, prevention and therapeutics. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) have a great spectrum of photocatalytic antibacterial and anticancer applications. The chemical modification of TiO2 optimizes its bioactive performance. The aim of this study was the development of silver modified NPs (Ag/TiO2 NPs) with anticancer potential.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ag/TiO2 NPs were prepared through the sol-gel method, were fully characterized and were tested on cultured breast cancer epithelial cells (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231). The MTT colorimetric assay was used to estimate cellular viability. Western blot analysis of protein expression along with a DNA-laddering assay were employed for apoptosis detection.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: We show that photo-activated Ag/TiO2 NPs exhibited significant cytotoxicity on the highly malignant MDA-MB-231 cancer cells, inducing apoptosis, while MCF-7 cells that are characterized by low invasive properties were unaffected under the same conditions.
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| 6. |
- Markozannes, Georgios, et al.
(författare)
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An umbrella review of the literature on the effectiveness of psychological interventions for pain reduction.
- 2017
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Ingår i: BMC Psychology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2050-7283. ; 5:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Psychological interventions are widely implemented for pain management and treatment, but their reported effectiveness shows considerable variation and there is elevated likelihood for bias.METHODS: We summarized the strength of evidence and extent of potential biases in the published literature of psychological interventions for pain treatment using a range of criteria, including the statistical significance of the random effects summary estimate and of the largest study of each meta-analysis, number of participants, 95% prediction intervals, between-study heterogeneity, small-study effects and excess significance bias.RESULTS: Thirty-eight publications were identified, investigating 150 associations between several psychological interventions and 29 different types of pain. Of the 141 associations based on only randomized controlled trials, none presented strong or highly suggestive evidence by satisfying all the aforementioned criteria. The effect of psychological interventions on reducing cancer pain severity, pain in patients with arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, breast cancer, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, self-reported needle-related pain in children/adolescents or with chronic musculoskeletal pain, chronic non-headache pain and chronic pain in general were supported by suggestive evidence.CONCLUSIONS: The present findings reveal the lack of strong supporting empirical evidence for the effectiveness of psychological treatments for pain management and highlight the need to further evaluate the established approach of psychological interventions to ameliorate pain.
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