AIM: To investigate whether ANNs and LDA could recognize patients with ABG in a database, containing only clinical and biochemical variables, of a pool of patients with and without ABG, by selecting the most predictiv...AIM: To investigate whether ANNs and LDA could recognize patients with ABG in a database, containing only clinical and biochemical variables, of a pool of patients with and without ABG, by selecting the most predictive variables and by reducing input data to the minimum.METHODS: Data was collected from 350 consecutive outpatients (263 with ABG, 87 with non-atrophic gastritis and/or celiac disease [controls]). Structured questionnaires with 22 items (anagraphic, anamnestic, clinical, and biochemical data) were filled out for each patient. All patients underwent gastroscopy with biopsies. ANNs and LDA were applied to recognize patients with ABG.Experiment 1: random selection on 37 variables, experiment 2: optimization process on 30 variables, experiment 3:input data reduction on 8 variables, experiment 4: use of only clinical input data on 5 variables, and experiment 5:use of only serological variables.RESULTS: In experiment 1, overall accuracies of ANNs and LDA were 96.6% and 94.6%, respectively, for predicting patients with ABG. In experiment 2, ANNs and LDA reached an overall accuracy of 98.8% and 96.8%,respectively. In experiment 3, overall accuracy of ANNs was 98.4%. In experiment 4, overall accuracies of ANNs and LDA were, respectively, 91.3% and 88.6%. In experiment 5, overall accuracies of ANNs and LDA were,respectively, 97.7% and 94.5%.CONCLUSION: This preliminary study suggests that advanced statistical methods, not only ANNs, but also LDA,may contribute to better address bioptic sampling during gastroscopy in a subset of patients in whom ABG may be suspected on the basis of aspecific gastrointestinal symptoms or non-digestive disorders.展开更多
AIM: To investigate the role of artifi cial neural networks in predicting the presence of thyroid disease in atrophic body gastritis patients. METHODS: A dataset of 29 input variables of 253 atrophic body gastritis pa...AIM: To investigate the role of artifi cial neural networks in predicting the presence of thyroid disease in atrophic body gastritis patients. METHODS: A dataset of 29 input variables of 253 atrophic body gastritis patients was applied to artifi cial neural networks (ANNs) using a data optimisation procedure (standard ANNs,T&T-IS protocol,TWIST protocol). The target variable was the presence of thyroid disease. RESULTS: Standard ANNs obtained a mean accuracy of 64.4% with a sensitivity of 69% and a specifi city of 59.8% in recognizing atrophic body gastritis patients with thyroid disease. The optimization procedures (T&T-IS and TWIST protocol) improved the performance of the recognition task yielding a mean accuracy,sensitivity and specifi city of 74.7% and 75.8%,78.8% and 81.8%,and 70.5% and 69.9%,respectively. The increase of sensitivity of the TWIST protocol was statistically signifi cant compared to T&T-IS. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that artificial neural networks may be taken into consideration as a potential clinical decision-support tool for identifying ABG patients at risk for harbouring an unknown thyroid disease and thus requiring diagnostic work-up of their thyroid status.展开更多
AIM： To assess the management and outcome of nonerosive gastro-esophageal reflux disease （NERD） patients who were identified retrospectively, after a 5-year follow-up. METHODS： We included patients with gastro-eso...AIM： To assess the management and outcome of nonerosive gastro-esophageal reflux disease （NERD） patients who were identified retrospectively, after a 5-year follow-up. METHODS： We included patients with gastro-esophageal reflux disease （GERD） symptoms who had a negative endoscopy result and pathological 24-h esophageal pH-monitoring while off therapy. We interviewed them after an average period of 5 years （range 3.5-7 years） by means of a structured questionnaire to assess presence of GERD symptoms, related therapy, updated endoscopic data and other features. We assessed predictors of esophagitis development by means of univariate and multivariate statistical analysis. RESULTS： 260 patients （137 women） were included. Predominant GERD symptoms were heartburn and regurgitation in 103/260 （40%）. 70% received a maintenance treatment, which was proton pump inhibitor （PPI） in 55% of cases. An average number of 1.5 symptomatic relapses per patient/year of follow-up were observed. A progression to erosive gastro-esophageal reflux disease （ERD） was found in 58/193 （30.0%） of patients undergoing repeat endoscopy; 72% of these were Los Angeles grade A-B. CONCLUSION： This study to ERD occurs in about 5% shows that progression of NERD cases per year, despite therapy. Only two factors consistently and independently influence progression： smoking and absence of PPI therapy.展开更多
AIM： To evaluate the effects of gliadin on the oxidative environment in the “in vivo-like”model of a three-dimensional cell culture system. METHODS： LoVo cell line （intestinal adenocarcinoma） multicellular spher...AIM： To evaluate the effects of gliadin on the oxidative environment in the “in vivo-like”model of a three-dimensional cell culture system. METHODS： LoVo cell line （intestinal adenocarcinoma） multicellular spheroids were treated with digested gliadin （with albumin used as a control）. Spheroid volumes, cell viability and morphology, lactate dehydrogenase （LDH） release, content of reduced glutathione （GSH） and activity of GSH-related enzymes were examined. The data were statistically analyzed using the Student＇s t-test （P〈0.05）. was considered statistically significant. RESULTS： Gliadin reduced cell viability （from 20% to 60%） and led to morphological alterations characterized by apoptotic findings and cytoskeletal injuries. LDH activity increased. The content of GSH reduced （-20% vscontrols）, and activity of GSH-related enzymes was significantly inhibited. CONCLUSION： Gliadin treatment induces an imbalance in the antioxidative mechanism of cells cultured by the three-dimensional technique. This alteration may explain cell damage directly caused by gliadin and the subsequentmorphological abnormalities.展开更多
Meningioma in vivo research is hampered by the difficulty of establishing an easy and reproducible orthotopic model able to mimic the characteristics of a human meningioma. Moreover, leptomeningeal dissemination and h...Meningioma in vivo research is hampered by the difficulty of establishing an easy and reproducible orthotopic model able to mimic the characteristics of a human meningioma. Moreover, leptomeningeal dissemination and high mortality are often associated with such orthotopical models, making them useless for clinical translation studies. An optimized method for inducing meningiomas in nude mice at two different sites is described in this paper and the high reproducibility and low mortality of the models are demonstrated. Skull base meningiomas were induced in the auditory meatus and convexity meningiomas were induced on the brain surface of 23 and 24 nude mice, respectively. Both models led to the development of a mass easily observable by imaging methods. Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI was used as a tool to monitor and characterize the pathology onset and progression. At the end of the study, histology was performed to confirm the neoplastic origin of the diseased mass.展开更多
基金Supported by a grant from Bracco Imaging Spa, Milan, Italy, and a grant from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (No. 2002-2003)
文摘AIM: To investigate whether ANNs and LDA could recognize patients with ABG in a database, containing only clinical and biochemical variables, of a pool of patients with and without ABG, by selecting the most predictive variables and by reducing input data to the minimum.METHODS: Data was collected from 350 consecutive outpatients (263 with ABG, 87 with non-atrophic gastritis and/or celiac disease [controls]). Structured questionnaires with 22 items (anagraphic, anamnestic, clinical, and biochemical data) were filled out for each patient. All patients underwent gastroscopy with biopsies. ANNs and LDA were applied to recognize patients with ABG.Experiment 1: random selection on 37 variables, experiment 2: optimization process on 30 variables, experiment 3:input data reduction on 8 variables, experiment 4: use of only clinical input data on 5 variables, and experiment 5:use of only serological variables.RESULTS: In experiment 1, overall accuracies of ANNs and LDA were 96.6% and 94.6%, respectively, for predicting patients with ABG. In experiment 2, ANNs and LDA reached an overall accuracy of 98.8% and 96.8%,respectively. In experiment 3, overall accuracy of ANNs was 98.4%. In experiment 4, overall accuracies of ANNs and LDA were, respectively, 91.3% and 88.6%. In experiment 5, overall accuracies of ANNs and LDA were,respectively, 97.7% and 94.5%.CONCLUSION: This preliminary study suggests that advanced statistical methods, not only ANNs, but also LDA,may contribute to better address bioptic sampling during gastroscopy in a subset of patients in whom ABG may be suspected on the basis of aspecific gastrointestinal symptoms or non-digestive disorders.
基金funds from MIUR 2005 (Italian Ministry for University and Research) and University Sapienza Roma
文摘AIM: To investigate the role of artifi cial neural networks in predicting the presence of thyroid disease in atrophic body gastritis patients. METHODS: A dataset of 29 input variables of 253 atrophic body gastritis patients was applied to artifi cial neural networks (ANNs) using a data optimisation procedure (standard ANNs,T&T-IS protocol,TWIST protocol). The target variable was the presence of thyroid disease. RESULTS: Standard ANNs obtained a mean accuracy of 64.4% with a sensitivity of 69% and a specifi city of 59.8% in recognizing atrophic body gastritis patients with thyroid disease. The optimization procedures (T&T-IS and TWIST protocol) improved the performance of the recognition task yielding a mean accuracy,sensitivity and specifi city of 74.7% and 75.8%,78.8% and 81.8%,and 70.5% and 69.9%,respectively. The increase of sensitivity of the TWIST protocol was statistically signifi cant compared to T&T-IS. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that artificial neural networks may be taken into consideration as a potential clinical decision-support tool for identifying ABG patients at risk for harbouring an unknown thyroid disease and thus requiring diagnostic work-up of their thyroid status.
文摘AIM： To assess the management and outcome of nonerosive gastro-esophageal reflux disease （NERD） patients who were identified retrospectively, after a 5-year follow-up. METHODS： We included patients with gastro-esophageal reflux disease （GERD） symptoms who had a negative endoscopy result and pathological 24-h esophageal pH-monitoring while off therapy. We interviewed them after an average period of 5 years （range 3.5-7 years） by means of a structured questionnaire to assess presence of GERD symptoms, related therapy, updated endoscopic data and other features. We assessed predictors of esophagitis development by means of univariate and multivariate statistical analysis. RESULTS： 260 patients （137 women） were included. Predominant GERD symptoms were heartburn and regurgitation in 103/260 （40%）. 70% received a maintenance treatment, which was proton pump inhibitor （PPI） in 55% of cases. An average number of 1.5 symptomatic relapses per patient/year of follow-up were observed. A progression to erosive gastro-esophageal reflux disease （ERD） was found in 58/193 （30.0%） of patients undergoing repeat endoscopy; 72% of these were Los Angeles grade A-B. CONCLUSION： This study to ERD occurs in about 5% shows that progression of NERD cases per year, despite therapy. Only two factors consistently and independently influence progression： smoking and absence of PPI therapy.
基金Supported by the San Paolo Foundation grant to "Centro per lo Studio della Celiachia"
文摘AIM： To evaluate the effects of gliadin on the oxidative environment in the “in vivo-like”model of a three-dimensional cell culture system. METHODS： LoVo cell line （intestinal adenocarcinoma） multicellular spheroids were treated with digested gliadin （with albumin used as a control）. Spheroid volumes, cell viability and morphology, lactate dehydrogenase （LDH） release, content of reduced glutathione （GSH） and activity of GSH-related enzymes were examined. The data were statistically analyzed using the Student＇s t-test （P〈0.05）. was considered statistically significant. RESULTS： Gliadin reduced cell viability （from 20% to 60%） and led to morphological alterations characterized by apoptotic findings and cytoskeletal injuries. LDH activity increased. The content of GSH reduced （-20% vscontrols）, and activity of GSH-related enzymes was significantly inhibited. CONCLUSION： Gliadin treatment induces an imbalance in the antioxidative mechanism of cells cultured by the three-dimensional technique. This alteration may explain cell damage directly caused by gliadin and the subsequentmorphological abnormalities.
文摘Meningioma in vivo research is hampered by the difficulty of establishing an easy and reproducible orthotopic model able to mimic the characteristics of a human meningioma. Moreover, leptomeningeal dissemination and high mortality are often associated with such orthotopical models, making them useless for clinical translation studies. An optimized method for inducing meningiomas in nude mice at two different sites is described in this paper and the high reproducibility and low mortality of the models are demonstrated. Skull base meningiomas were induced in the auditory meatus and convexity meningiomas were induced on the brain surface of 23 and 24 nude mice, respectively. Both models led to the development of a mass easily observable by imaging methods. Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI was used as a tool to monitor and characterize the pathology onset and progression. At the end of the study, histology was performed to confirm the neoplastic origin of the diseased mass.
