Telehealth modulation and new proposals during the Covid-19 pandemic: a literature review

The Covid-19 pandemic has completely modified the Healthcare organization. This review aims to analyze the evolution of the different Telemedicine areas during pandemic. Electronic Health Records allows accelerating the study of patients suffering from Covid-19 disease, supporting their clinical assistance. The decreasing rehabilitation programs have determined a deterioration of the patient quality of life. Teleradiology was necessary to discard the increased requests and dab the shortage of staff, and to guarantee the interaction between specialist and patient. Telecardiology was fundamental determining a reduced of secondary mortality for cardiological complications of the infection. Teledermatology has permitted an early identification of the patients affected through diagnoses of cutaneous signs, reducing clinical visits. Telelegal-medicine changed through a law, that was introduced allowing a remarkable use of videoconferencing in the different stages of judicial and extrajudicial process. The digital consultations and home drug delivery were implemented in telepharmacy area. Artificial Intelligence allows an early diagnosis of the infection, monitoring the treatment through an intelligent platform. Robotic assisted telemedicine minimizes the risk of exposure allowing the disinfection of the places, drugs and meals delivery, the measurement of vital signs. Mobile Health facilitated the collection and the automatic transfer of the patient's parameters. Telemedicine would constitute still today as complementary but not substitutive to the traditional medicine. During the pandemic telemedicine has resulted important to guarantee continuity cures. Radiology and Dermatology showed a major telemedicine application.

Blood Vessel Detection Algorithm for Tissue Engineering and Quantitative Histology

Immunohistochemistry for vascular network analysis plays a fundamental role in basic science, translational research and clinical practice. However, identifying vascularization in histological tissue images is time consuming and markedly depends on the operator’s experience. In this study, we present “blood vessel detection—BVD”, an automatic algorithm for quantitative analysis of blood vessels in immunohistochemical images. BVD is based on extraction and analysis of low-level image features and spatial filtering techniques, which do not require a training phase. BVD algorithm performance was comparatively evaluated on histological sections from three different in vivo experiments. Collectively, 173 independent images were analyzed, and the algorithm's results were compared to those obtained by human operators. The developed BVD algorithm proved to be a robust and versatile tool, being able to quantify number, area, and spatial distribution of blood vessels within all three considered histologic datasets. BVD is provided as an open-source application working on different operating systems. BVD is supported by a user-friendly graphical interface designed to facilitate large-scale analysis.

Multislice human organ extraction based on GVF

Segmentation techniques based on active contours algorithm are widely used in medical imaging. Unfortunately, they require a lot of parameters to be used and this can represent an issue for those physicians with not much informatics skills. This paper proposes a software tool which allows to segment multiple slice can differ organ extraction setting a small number of parameters. Moreover, the tool offers the functionality to perform a multiple segmentation the same time, so that an entire volume composed by hundreds slices can be segmented.

Bias artifact suppression on MR volumes

RF-inhomogeneity correction is a relevant research topic in the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A volume corrupted by this artifact exhibits nonuniform illumination both inside a single slice and between adjacent ones. In this work a bias correction technique is presented, which suppresses this artifact on MR volumes scanned from different body parts without any a priori hypothesis on the artifact model. Theoretical foundations of the method are reported together with experimental results and a comparison is presented with both the 2D version of the algorithm and other techniques that are widely used in MRI literature.

Usefulness of a comprehensive neurophysiological assessment for early diagnosis and prognosis of traumatic brachial plexus injuries

PURPOSE

To illustrate how a thorough neurophysiological evaluation allows early diagnosis and prognosis of traumatic brachial plexus injuries.

METHODS

As examples, we report on the case of two patients with acute traumatic brachial plexus injuries for whom a comprehensive neurophysiological evaluation allowed early diagnosis and prognosis.

RESULTS

Neurophysiological findings were consistent with complete proximal (root) lesion in one patient and a severe neuroapraxic block between Erb point and axilla in the other one.

CONCLUSIONS

The two reported acute cases of traumatic brachial plexus injuries demonstrated the high diagnostic and prognostic value of the neurophysiological tests when fully utilized.

Development of software in the study of carotid artery in the neck

The aim of this work was to develop and employ software for the study of the common carotid artery and its branches in the neck. We first constructed geometric models of anatomic components, for the building of knowledge bases to be used in automatic feature extraction techniques from images. Then, we developed a software system characterised by three-dimensional visualisation, image processing functions, knowledge base and a programming language to describe classification processing by means of fuzzy logic. The software system was used to perform automatic reconstruction of three-dimensional models of carotid arteries from contiguous CT scans of the neck. These findings suggest that such software systems represent a useful help in the study of image based diagnosis of carotid arteries.

[Intracranial mycotic aneurysms. Considerations apropos of 2 clinical cases]

Authors refer about the pathogenesis, the clinical and therapeutical problems, concerning two patients affected by mycotic intracranial aneurysms. They describe the anamnestical data of M.I.A., the clinic, the diagnostical and therapeutical measures in use.

Intrasacral meningocele associated to lumbar disk rupture. A case report

A case of intrasacral meningocele associated to L4-L5 discal rupture is described. The possibility for this kind of malformation to be asymptomatic is emphasized.

Recurrent massive otorrhagia caused by a petrous carotid aneurysm

Aneurysms of the petrous portion of the internal carotid artery are quite rare lesions. The case of a 60-year-old man who showed recurrent spontaneous otorrhagia caused by a petrous carotid aneurysm of considerable size is reported here. Mycotic origin of the lesion is presumed. Common carotid ligation was effective in resolving bleeding and did not cause any permanent neurological deficit. Other surgical procedures are acceptable.