Daniela Chan-Víquez, Ajmal Khan, Sarah Munce, Darcy Fehlings, F Virginia Wright, Elaine Biddiss
{"title":"Understanding a videogame home intervention for children with hemiplegia: a mixed methods multi-case study.","authors":"Daniela Chan-Víquez, Ajmal Khan, Sarah Munce, Darcy Fehlings, F Virginia Wright, Elaine Biddiss","doi":"10.3389/fmedt.2023.1217797","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fmedt.2023.1217797","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Access to rehabilitation therapies is a salient and growing issue for children with cerebral palsy (CP) and their families, motivating interest in home-based interventions. Bootle Blast is a low-cost, movement-tracking videogame that can be used at home to encourage upper limb (UL) functional exercise tailored to each child's abilities and therapy goals. The study objectives were to: 1) Establish the extent to which children achieve their self-directed play-time goal over a 12-week intervention, 2) Measure changes in UL motor outcomes, and 3) Explore participants' experiences of using Bootle Blast at home.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Mixed methods case series study of four children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP), each with a participating parent. Participants played Bootle Blast at home for 12 weeks. Study assessments occurred at baseline, post-intervention and four week follow up. A post-intervention interview explored participants' experiences. Game-logs provided play time and progress data.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Three of four participants (8-13 yrs., Manual Ability Classification Level I-II) completed the intervention. One dropped out at week 6. Play-time goals were achieved in most weeks, with two of four children surpassing their overall intervention goals. Outcomes varied across the three participants, however consistent improvements were observed on the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and the Box and Blocks Test. Inductive analysis generated four main themes: 1) Intrinsic motivators fostered play engagement, 2) Virtual play for real-world gains, 3) Therapy on demand (at home), and 4) Shifting the onus from the parent to the game. Integration of qualitative and quantitative data was important for interpreting play patterns/usage and clinical outcomes.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>This mixed methods study describes a novel videogaming intervention designed for home-rehabilitation for children with HCP and provides preliminary evidence to guide future study design and research.</p><p><strong>Clinical trial registration: </strong>[https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04009031?recrs=h&cond=Cerebral+Palsy&cntry=CA&city=Toronto&draw=2&rank=1], identifier [NCT04009031].</p>","PeriodicalId":12599,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Medical Technology","volume":"5 ","pages":"1217797"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10368996/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10263725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Vivek K Chaturvedi, Bhaskar Sharma, Abhay Dev Tripathi, Dawesh P Yadav, Kshitij Rb Singh, Jay Singh, Ravindra Pratap Singh
{"title":"Biosynthesized nanoparticles: a novel approach for cancer therapeutics.","authors":"Vivek K Chaturvedi, Bhaskar Sharma, Abhay Dev Tripathi, Dawesh P Yadav, Kshitij Rb Singh, Jay Singh, Ravindra Pratap Singh","doi":"10.3389/fmedt.2023.1236107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fmedt.2023.1236107","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nanotechnology has become one of the most rapid, innovative, and adaptable sciences in modern science and cancer therapy. Traditional chemotherapy has limits owing to its non-specific nature and adverse side effects on healthy cells, and it remains a serious worldwide health issue. Because of their capacity to specifically target cancer cells and deliver therapeutic chemicals directly to them, nanoparticles have emerged as a viable strategy for cancer therapies. Nanomaterials disclose novel properties based on size, distribution, and shape. Biosynthesized or biogenic nanoparticles are a novel technique with anti-cancer capabilities, such as triggering apoptosis in cancer cells and slowing tumour growth. They may be configured to deliver medications or other therapies to specific cancer cells or tumour markers. Despite their potential, biosynthesized nanoparticles confront development obstacles such as a lack of standardisation in their synthesis and characterization, the possibility of toxicity, and their efficiency against various forms of cancer. The effectiveness and safety of biosynthesized nanoparticles must be further investigated, as well as the types of cancer they are most successful against. This review discusses the promise of biosynthesized nanoparticles as a novel approach for cancer therapeutics, as well as their mode of action and present barriers to their development.</p>","PeriodicalId":12599,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Medical Technology","volume":"5 ","pages":"1236107"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10374256/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10268382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Research of storable and ready-to-use artificial red blood cells (hemoglobin vesicles) for emergency medicine and other clinical applications.","authors":"Hiromi Sakai, Tomoko Kure, Kazuaki Taguchi, Hiroshi Azuma","doi":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.1048951","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.1048951","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hemoglobin (Hb) is the most abundant protein in blood, with concentration of about 12-15 g/dl. The highly concentrated Hb solution (35 g/dl) is compartmentalized in red blood cells (RBCs). Once Hb is released from RBCs by hemolysis during blood circulation, it induces renal and cardiovascular toxicities. To date, hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers of various types have been developed as blood substitutes to mitigate the Hb toxicities. One method is Hb encapsulation in phospholipid vesicles (liposomes). Although the Hb toxicity can be shielded, it is equally important to ensure the biocompatibility of the liposomal membrane. We have developed Hb-vesicles (HbV). A new encapsulation method using a rotation-revolution mixer which enabled efficient production of HbV with a high yield has considerably facilitated R&D of HbV. Along with our academic consortium, we have studied the preclinical safety and efficacy of HbV extensively as a transfusion alternative, and finally conducted a phase I clinical trial. Moreover, carbonyl-HbV and met-HbV are developed respectively for an anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative agent and an antidote for poisons. This review paper specifically presents past trials of liposome encapsulated Hb, biocompatible lipid bilayer membranes, and efficient HbV preparation methods, in addition to potential clinical applications of HbV based on results of our <i>in vivo</i> studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":12599,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Medical Technology","volume":"4 ","pages":"1048951"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9816666/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10564859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Faraz Farhadi, Matthew R Barnes, Harun R Sugito, Jessica M Sin, Eric R Henderson, Joshua J Levy
{"title":"Applications of artificial intelligence in orthopaedic surgery.","authors":"Faraz Farhadi, Matthew R Barnes, Harun R Sugito, Jessica M Sin, Eric R Henderson, Joshua J Levy","doi":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.995526","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.995526","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The practice of medicine is rapidly transforming as a result of technological breakthroughs. Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are becoming more and more relevant in medicine and orthopaedic surgery as a result of the nearly exponential growth in computer processing power, cloud based computing, and development, and refining of medical-task specific software algorithms. Because of the extensive role of technologies such as medical imaging that bring high sensitivity, specificity, and positive/negative prognostic value to management of orthopaedic disorders, the field is particularly ripe for the application of machine-based integration of imaging studies, among other applications. Through this review, we seek to promote awareness in the orthopaedics community of the current accomplishments and projected uses of AI and ML as described in the literature. We summarize the current state of the art in the use of ML and AI in five key orthopaedic disciplines: joint reconstruction, spine, orthopaedic oncology, trauma, and sports medicine.</p>","PeriodicalId":12599,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Medical Technology","volume":"4 ","pages":"995526"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9797865/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9255321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carlo Calabrese, Dania Gelli, Fernando Rizzello, Paolo Gionchetti, Rafael Torrejon Torres, Rhodri Saunders, Jason Davis
{"title":"Capsule endoscopy in Crohn's disease surveillance: A monocentric, retrospective analysis in Italy.","authors":"Carlo Calabrese, Dania Gelli, Fernando Rizzello, Paolo Gionchetti, Rafael Torrejon Torres, Rhodri Saunders, Jason Davis","doi":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.1038087","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.1038087","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Crohn's disease (CD) is a potentially debilitating condition that burdens Italian healthcare substantially. The symptomatic management relies on prompt therapy adjustment to reduce flares and follow-up diagnostic inputs to maximise remission. Capsule endoscopy (CE) has introduced advantages in CD diagnostics, allowing the direct inspection of the entire gastrointestinal mucosa. The diagnostic procedure is comparable in effort to standard ileocolonoscopy (IC) but requires no anaesthesia. Whether CE follow-up improves clinical outcomes remains to be defined.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To provide a preliminary evaluation of CE in terms of clinical outcomes with respect to the standard of care ileocolonoscopy/MRE in Italy.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This retrospective analysis utilises anonymised, monocentric data from the S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital IBD database in Bologna, Italy, collected between 1999 and 2019. Out of 421 adult patient records, 100 were included in the analysis (50 per arm, matched per demographic and clinical characteristics). The CE represented the intervention arm, whereas ileocolonoscopy/magnetic resonance enterography was the standard of care. The use of biologics, symptomatology course, and surgery were the outcomes.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The two techniques performed similarly overall. In general, no significant difference emerged in the use of biologics. The use of biologics appears reduced in the CE group, only in L4 patients after the first follow-up year. Similarly, surgery was seemingly less frequent among L4 patients in the CE group. No difference was found between groups in flare occurrence and duration. CE patients might have experienced longer and earlier first remissions, but no long-term difference persisted.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The CE group showed an apparent reduction in biologics and surgery, limiting to L4 diagnoses. More extensive, prospective, multicentre, randomised studies must corroborate these preliminary findings.</p>","PeriodicalId":12599,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Medical Technology","volume":"4 ","pages":"1038087"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9742545/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10363082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mining associations between glycemic variability in awake-time and in-sleep among non-diabetic adults.","authors":"Zilu Liang","doi":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.1026830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fmedt.2022.1026830","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>It is often assumed that healthy people have the genuine ability to maintain tight blood glucose regulation. However, a few recent studies revealed that glucose dysregulation such as hyperglycemia may occur even in people who are considered normoglycemic by standard measures and were more prevalent than initially thought, suggesting that more investigations are needed to fully understand the within-day glucose dynamics of healthy people. In this paper, we conducted an analysis on a multi-modal dataset to examine the relationships between glycemic variability when people were awake and that when they were sleeping. The interstitial glucose levels were measured with a wearable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology FreeStyle Libre 2 at every 15 min interval. In contrast to the traditional single-time-point measurements, the CGM data allow the investigation into the temporal patterns of glucose dynamics at high granularity. Sleep onset and offset timestamps were recorded daily with a Fitbit Charge 3 wristband. Our analysis leveraged the sleep data to split the glucose readings into segments of awake-time and in-sleep, instead of using fixed cut-off time points as has been done in existing literature. We combined repeated measure correlation analysis and quantitative association rules mining, together with an original post-filtering method, to identify significant and most relevant associations. Our results showed that low overall glucose in awake time was strongly correlated to low glucose in subsequent sleep, which in turn correlated to overall low glucose in the next day. Moreover, both analysis techniques identified significant associations between the minimal glucose reading in sleep and the low blood glucose index the next day. In addition, the association rules discovered in this study achieved high confidence (0.75-0.88) and lift (4.1-11.5), which implies that the proposed post-filtering method was effective in selecting quality rules.</p>","PeriodicalId":12599,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Medical Technology","volume":" ","pages":"1026830"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9671935/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40715536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"To lockdown or not to lockdown: Analysis of the EU lockdown performance vs. COVID-19 outbreak.","authors":"Emanuele Lindo Secco, Stefano Conte","doi":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.981620","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.981620","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The worldwide COVID-19 outbreak has dramatically called for appropriate responses from governments. Scientists estimated both the basic reproduction number and the lethality of the virus. The former one depends on several factors (environment and social behavior, virus characteristics, removal rate). In the absence of specific treatments (vaccine, drugs) for COVID-19 there was a limited capability to control the likelihood of transmission or the recovery rate. Therefore, to limit the expected exponential spread of the disease and to reduce its consequences, most national authorities have adopted containment strategies that are mostly focused on social distancing measures. In this context, we performed an analysis of the effects of government lockdown policies in 5 European Countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom). We used phone mobility data, published by Apple Inc. and Google, as an indirect measure of social distancing over time since we believe they represent a good approximation of actual changes in social behaviors. (i) The responsiveness of the governments in taking decisions. (ii) The coherence of the lockdown policy with changes in mobility data. (iii) The lockdown implementation performance in each country. (iv) The effects of social distancing on the epidemic evolution. These data were first analyzed in relation with the evolution of political recommendations and directives to both assess (i) responsiveness of governments in taking decisions and (ii) the implementation performance in each country. Subsequently, we used data made available by John Hopkins University in the attempt to compare changes in people behaviors with the evolution of COVID-19 epidemic (confirmed cases, new and cumulative) in each country in scope. Finally, we made an attempt to identify some key lockdown performance parameters in order to: (i) establish responsiveness, efficiency and effectiveness of the lockdown measures. (ii) model the latency occurring between the changes in social behaviors and the changes in growth rate of the disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":12599,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Medical Technology","volume":" ","pages":"981620"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9634555/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40669999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Liliana Sussman, Juan Esteban Garcia-Robledo, Camila Ordóñez-Reyes, Yency Forero, Andrés F Mosquera, Alejandro Ruíz-Patiño, Diego F Chamorro, Andrés F Cardona
{"title":"Integration of artificial intelligence and precision oncology in Latin America.","authors":"Liliana Sussman, Juan Esteban Garcia-Robledo, Camila Ordóñez-Reyes, Yency Forero, Andrés F Mosquera, Alejandro Ruíz-Patiño, Diego F Chamorro, Andrés F Cardona","doi":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.1007822","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fmedt.2022.1007822","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Next-generation medicine encompasses different concepts related to healthcare models and technological developments. In Latin America and the Caribbean, healthcare systems are quite different between countries, and cancer control is known to be insufficient and inefficient considering socioeconomically discrepancies. Despite advancements in knowledge about the biology of different oncological diseases, the disease remains a challenge in terms of diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis for clinicians and researchers. With the development of molecular biology, better diagnosis methods, and therapeutic tools in the last years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become important, because it could improve different clinical scenarios: predicting clinically relevant parameters, cancer diagnosis, cancer research, and accelerating the growth of personalized medicine. The incorporation of AI represents an important challenge in terms of diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis for clinicians and researchers in cancer care. Therefore, some studies about AI in Latin America and the Caribbean are being conducted with the aim to improve the performance of AI in those countries. This review introduces AI in cancer care in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the advantages and promising results that it has shown in this socio-demographic context.</p>","PeriodicalId":12599,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Medical Technology","volume":" ","pages":"1007822"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9608820/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40656778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mariana Valério, Luís Borges-Araújo, Manuel N Melo, Diana Lousa, Cláudio M Soares
{"title":"SARS-CoV-2 variants impact RBD conformational dynamics and ACE2 accessibility.","authors":"Mariana Valério, Luís Borges-Araújo, Manuel N Melo, Diana Lousa, Cláudio M Soares","doi":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.1009451","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fmedt.2022.1009451","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has killed over 6 million people and is having a devastating social and economic impact around the world. The rise of new variants of concern (VOCs) represents a difficult challenge due to the loss of vaccine and natural immunity, as well as increased transmissibility. All VOCs contain mutations in the spike glycoprotein, which mediates fusion between the viral and host cell membranes. The spike glycoprotein binds to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) <i>via</i> its receptor binding domain (RBD) initiating the infection process. Attempting to understand the effect of RBD mutations in VOCs, a lot of attention has been given to the RBD-ACE2 interaction. However, this type of analysis ignores more indirect effects, such as the conformational dynamics of the RBD itself. Observing that some mutations occur in residues that are not in direct contact with ACE2, we hypothesized that they could affect the RBD conformational dynamics. To test this, we performed long atomistic (AA) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the structural dynamics of <i>wt</i> RBD, and that of four VOCs (Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron). Our results show that the <i>wt</i> RBD presents two distinct conformations: an \"open\" conformation where it is free to bind ACE2; and a \"closed\" conformation, where the RBM ridge blocks the binding surface. The Alpha and Beta variants shift the open/closed equilibrium towards the open conformation by roughly 20%, likely increasing ACE2 binding affinity. Simulations of the Delta and Omicron variants showed extreme results, with the closed conformation being rarely observed. The Delta variant also differed substantially from the other variants, alternating between the open conformation and an alternative \"reversed\" one, with a significantly changed orientation of the RBM ridge. This alternate conformation could provide a fitness advantage due to increased availability for ACE2 binding, and by aiding antibody escape through epitope occlusion. These results support the hypothesis that VOCs, and particularly the Omicron and Delta variants, impact RBD conformational dynamics in a direction that promotes efficient binding to ACE2 and, in the case of Delta, may assist antibody escape.</p>","PeriodicalId":12599,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Medical Technology","volume":" ","pages":"1009451"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9581196/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40677055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}