Benign Pattern Research Articles

Going Around in Circles

This paper tries to reconcile the clash between argumentation theory and formal logic regarding circular arguments, which are regarded as the fallacy of begging the question by the former, and a benign and useful inference pattern by the latter. This paper provides a formal system which can represent circular arguments found in the literature. The formal system makes it possible to distinguish two ways in which arguments can be circular. The first type of circularity, which is vicious, is when an argument is based on an inference step which is (indirectly) supported by that inference step itself. The second kind of circularity, which is benign, occurs when one of the premises is the same proposition as the conclusion. The first type of circularity implies the second type of circularity, but not the other way round. This distinction is in line with other approaches to circular arguments. Analyzing selected examples from the literature shows the value of the formal system.

XAI-Based Accurate Anomaly Detector That Is Robust Against Black-Box Evasion Attacks for the Smart Grid

In the realm of smart grids, machine learning (ML) detectors—both binary (or supervised) and anomaly (or unsupervised)—have proven effective in detecting electricity theft (ET). However, binary detectors are designed for specific attacks, making their performance unpredictable against new attacks. Anomaly detectors, conversely, are trained on benign data and identify deviations from benign patterns as anomalies, but their performance is highly sensitive to the selected threshold values. Additionally, ML detectors are vulnerable to evasion attacks, where attackers make minimal changes to malicious samples to evade detection. To address these limitations, we introduce a hybrid anomaly detector that combines a Deep Auto-Encoder (DAE) with a One-Class Support Vector Machine (OCSVM). This detector not only enhances classification performance but also mitigates the threshold sensitivity of the DAE. Furthermore, we evaluate the vulnerability of this detector to benchmark evasion attacks. Lastly, we propose an accurate and robust cluster-based DAE+OCSVM ET anomaly detector, trained using Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) explanations generated by the Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) method on consumption readings. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed XAI-based detector achieves superior classification performance and exhibits enhanced robustness against various evasion attacks, including gradient-based and optimization-based methods, under a black-box threat model.

Classification of Premature Ventricular Contractions in Athletes During Routine Preparticipation Exams.

Large-scale data on incidental premature ventricular contraction (PVC) prevalence and morphologies have been lacking, leaving many providers without guidance on further cardiac testing for patients with incidental PVCs on ECG. Athletes offer an intriguing cohort to understand the clinical significance, prevalence, and common morphologies of incidental PVCs because they often undergo ECG screening during preparticipation exams. Digital ECGs were obtained from 10 728 screened athletes aged 14 to 35 years during mass screenings in schools and professional sports teams between 2014 and 2021. A retrospective analysis of ECGs with PVCs was performed using the simultaneous display of frontal (limb) and horizontal (precordial) plane leads. PVCs were coded for morphology and categorized as benign or nonbenign using recommended criteria. Twenty-six athletes (0.24%) were found to have at least 1 PVC. Among these, 50% were female, 65% were White, 8% were Asian, 4% were Hispanic, and 23% were Black. Nineteen of the 26 (73%) ECGs had PVCs with a left bundle branch block pattern compared with 7 (27%) with a right bundle branch block pattern. Twenty-four ECGs (96%) had PVCs with benign patterns, including 18 with right ventricular outflow tract, 5 with left anterior fascicle, and 2 with left posterior fascicle morphology. There is a low prevalence of PVCs on routine ECG screening of young athletes, and most PVCs are of benign morphology in this population. This study highlights the value of using digital ECG recorders with simultaneous lead display to guide decision-making about further cardiac testing and referrals in young athletes with PVCs. Using our results and review of the literature, we propose methods and algorithms of PVC evaluation on screening ECGs to help guide many providers with risk stratification and decision-making about further cardiac testing and electrophysiology referrals in young athletes with PVCs.

Prognostic value of early EEG abnormalities in severe stroke patients requiring mechanical ventilation: a pre-planned analysis of the SPICE prospective multicenter study

IntroductionPrognostication of outcome in severe stroke patients necessitating invasive mechanical ventilation poses significant challenges. The objective of this study was to assess the prognostic significance and prevalence of early electroencephalogram (EEG) abnormalities in adult stroke patients receiving mechanical ventilation.MethodsThis study is a pre-planned ancillary investigation within the prospective multicenter SPICE cohort study (2017–2019), conducted in 33 intensive care units (ICUs) in the Paris area, France. We included adult stroke patients requiring invasive mechanical ventilation, who underwent at least one intermittent EEG examination during their ICU stay. The primary endpoint was the functional neurological outcome at one year, determined using the modified Rankin scale (mRS), and dichotomized as unfavorable (mRS 4–6, indicating severe disability or death) or favorable (mRS 0–3). Multivariable regression analyses were employed to identify EEG abnormalities associated with functional outcomes.ResultsOf the 364 patients enrolled in the SPICE study, 153 patients (49 ischemic strokes, 52 intracranial hemorrhages, and 52 subarachnoid hemorrhages) underwent at least one EEG at a median time of 4 (interquartile range 2–7) days post-stroke. Rates of diffuse slowing (70% vs. 63%, p = 0.37), focal slowing (38% vs. 32%, p = 0.15), periodic discharges (2.3% vs. 3.7%, p = 0.9), and electrographic seizures (4.5% vs. 3.7%, p = 0.4) were comparable between patients with unfavorable and favorable outcomes. Following adjustment for potential confounders, an unreactive EEG background to auditory and pain stimulations (OR 6.02, 95% CI 2.27–15.99) was independently associated with unfavorable outcomes. An unreactive EEG predicted unfavorable outcome with a specificity of 48% (95% CI 40–56), sensitivity of 79% (95% CI 72–85), and positive predictive value (PPV) of 74% (95% CI 67–81). Conversely, a benign EEG (defined as continuous and reactive background activity without seizure, periodic discharges, triphasic waves, or burst suppression) predicted favorable outcome with a specificity of 89% (95% CI 84–94), and a sensitivity of 37% (95% CI 30–45).ConclusionThe absence of EEG reactivity independently predicts unfavorable outcomes at one year in severe stroke patients requiring mechanical ventilation in the ICU, although its prognostic value remains limited. Conversely, a benign EEG pattern was associated with a favorable outcome.

Pattern of Adenoviral Conjunctivitis Reported to Tertiary Care Hospitals During Epidemic in Pakistan

Purpose: To determine clinical pattern of “adenoviral conjunctivitis” during its epidemic in Pakistan.
 Patients and Methods: 370 patients (550eyes) diagnosed with “adenoviral conjunctivitis” were included in this descriptive study. Diagnosis was made by the combination of characteristic clinical features and a positive conjunctival swab PCR for “adenovirus”. Clinical pattern of “adenoviral conjunctivitis” was determined by documenting various patient characteristics. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.
 Results: Median age of the study participants was 28.50 (1.00 – 67.00) years. 195 (52.70%) were males and 175 (47.30%) were females. 190 (51.35%) patients had unilateral ocular involvement, while 180 (48.65%) patients had bilateral ocular involvement. Median number of family members of patients that were infected simultaneously was 1 (0-5). Frequency of patients with “adenoviral conjunctivitis” who had concomitant corneal involvement was 30 (8.1%)
 Conclusion: Epidemic of “adenoviral conjunctivitis” in Pakistan, fortunately, exhibits a milder and benign clinical pattern with higher prevalence in males and mostly involving single eye. In addition, only 8.1% patients have concomitant corneal involvement.

A lightweight Intrusion Detection for Internet of Things‐based smart buildings

AbstractThe integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices into commercial or industrial buildings to create smart environments, such as Smart Buildings (SBs), has enabled real‐time data collection and processing to effectively manage building operations. Due to poor security design and implementation in IoT devices, SB networks face an array of security challenges and threats (e.g., botnet malware) that leverage IoT devices to conduct Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on the Internet infrastructure. Machine Learning (ML)‐based traffic classification systems aim to automatically detect such attacks by effectively differentiating attacks from benign traffic patterns in IoT networks. However, there is an inherent accuracy‐efficiency tradeoff in network traffic classification tasks. To balance this tradeoff, we develop an accurate yet lightweight device‐specific traffic classification model. This model classifies SB traffic flows into four types of coarse‐grained flows, based on the locations of traffic sources and the directions of traffic transmissions. Through these four types of coarse‐grained flows, the model can extract simple yet effective flow rate features to conduct learning and predictions. Our experiments find the model to achieve an overall accuracy of 96%, with only 32 features to be learned by the ML model.

Comorbidity of cerebral palsy and epilepsy with autism in children

Background. Cerebral palsy is often combined with epilepsy (up to about 50 % of children). The treatment of epilepsy limits the rehabilitation of cerebral palsy, and the rehabilitation of cerebral palsy often provokes epileptic seizures. Epilepsy in children with cerebral palsy is often manifested in a form of developmental and epileptic encephalopathy with spike-and-wave activation in sleep, which is characterized by epileptiform activity according to the type of benign epileptiform patterns of childhood with a high index on the electroencephalogram (up to 100 %), severe epileptic seizures of a status course, and mental disorders by type autism-like behavior (the so-called atypical autism) and disorders of speech communication. The problem of comorbidity of cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism remains relevant and needs further study.Aim. To study the features of autism spectrum disorder in a group of children with a combination of cerebral palsy and epilepsy.Materials and methods. We examined 100 patients aged 3–10 years with various forms of cerebral palsy, combined with epilepsy, to identify the clinical features of autism spectrum disorder. Criteria for inclusion in the study: age 3–10 years; verified diagnosis of epilepsy in combination with cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorder; informed consent of the patient’s parents to participate in the study. Criteria for exclusion from the study: severe somatic diseases and disorders of the sense organs (in particular, kyphoscoliosis, gastrostomy and others, as well as deafness, blindness); age less than 3 or more than 10 years.Results. The average age of visiting a psychiatrist was 5.4 ± 0.5 years. The reasons for visit were: violation of the communication (76 %), decreased eye contact (75 %), lack of compassion for surrounding or adjacent animals (100 %), dysphoric disorders (77.1 %), aggression (55 %), autoaggression (40 %), phobias (90 %), impaired speech development (18 %). Perinatal brain damage was diagnosed in 100 % of cases. Epilepsy was manifested by focal motor seizures. Patients with complex treatment (drugs and pedagogical correction) have more pronounced positive dynamics compared with patients who received only drug therapy or only rehabilitation (p <0.05).Conclusion. In children with a combination of cerebral palsy and epilepsy, the cause of autism is perinatal lesions of the central nervous system, as well as the severity of motor pathology and the presence of continued epileptiform activity on the electroencephalogram. Autism in this group of children requires timely recognition and medical and pedagogical correction.

Robust night flow analysis in water distribution networks: A BiLSTM deep autoencoder approach

Night flow analysis is predominantly used to identify incipient (gradual) leakages in real-life Water Distribution Networks (WDNs). However, due to extreme stochastic demand especially in residentially dominated district metering areas (DMAs) and the emergence of sleepless cities, traditional night flow analysis methods have become inefficient. This study proposes a semi-supervised sequence-to-sequence Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) deep Auto Encoder (AE) method for night flow analysis in WDNs. To enhance the generalisation power of the deep AE, a vigorous data augmentation procedure based engineering domain knowledge and inherent properties of DMA is presented. The proposed method learns the underlying benign patterns in night flow (2:00 am to 4:00 am) and identifies significant deviations that represent the development of incipient leakages. The method was validated on residential, commercial, and industrial DMAs in a real-life WDN in the Ålesund Municipality of Norway. The results from the study showed that the proposed method is a robust and superior alternative to traditional night flow under extreme stochastic consumer demand. The proposed BiLSTM deep AE method was able to identify unreported leakages in the DMAs within 1 day or at most 4 days compared with at least 15 days identification time by traditional minimum night flow (MNF) and average night flow (ANF) analyses. Additionally, traditional minimum night flow analysis also produced more false positives compared with the proposed method. The results also revealed the usage of point estimates to represent night flow as done in MNF and ANF analyses fail to capture all salient information regarding night flow compared to the BiLSTM deep AE.

Acral Melanocytic Nevi in a High-Risk Population: Prevalence, Clinical Characteristics and Dermatoscopic Patterns

Background: The prevalence of acral nevi and their dermatoscopic patterns have been mainly studied in Asian populations. Few data exist on the prevalence and clinico-dermatoscopic morphology of acral nevi in white populations. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of acral nevi and evaluate their features in a cohort of Caucasian individuals at high risk for skin cancer. Methods: We prospectively examined the palms and soles of 680 high-risk patients who underwent total body clinical and dermatoscopic documentation, as a part of their routine follow-up, between January 2016 and March 2020 at a skin cancer referral center in Greece. Results: Overall, 334 acral lesions were detected in 217 (37.0%) of 585 patients in the study. The presence of acral nevi was associated with 2.6 higher odds of a total nevus count higher than 50 (OR: 2.6, p < 0.05, confidence intervals [CI]: 1.11–6.09). Of 334 acral nevi, 65.0% were clinically flat and 35.0% were clinically palpable. Palpable lesion had 19-fold higher probability of being located on the sole (OR: 19.44, p < 0.05, CI: 3.91–96.7). The parallel furrow pattern was present in 147 lesions (44.0%). In 76 lesions (22.8%), we observed a previously undefined pattern consisting of wavy lines, which was correlated with clinically palpable lesions (p < 0.001). The third most common pattern was homogeneous (10.5%), followed by the fibrillar (8.7%), the lattice-like (7.2%), the reticular (3.6%), and globular (3.3%). Conclusion: We observed a higher prevalence of benign acral melanocytic lesions than expected, probably related to our cohort selection of patients at high risk for developing skin cancer. Our study confirms the previously described dermatoscopic patterns and provides novel insights into the dermatoscopic morphology of acral palpable nevi, for which we described a new benign pattern consisting of wavy lines.

Influence of benign prostatic hyperplasia patterns detected with MRI on the clinical outcome after prostatic artery embolization

BackgroundTo investigate the influence of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patterns detected with MRI on clinical outcomes after prostatic artery embolization (PAE).Materials & methodsThis retrospective study included 71 consecutive patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), who underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the prostate followed by PAE at a single centre. MRI scans were evaluated and BPH patterns were determined according to Wasserman type and a modified BPH classification. Additionally, scans were evaluated regarding the presence of adenomatous-dominant benign prostatic hyperplasia (AdBPH). LUTS were assessed using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and urinary flow rate (Qmax). Follow-up examination included MRI and clinical outcome.ResultsFor clinical outcome at follow-up, IPSS showed median reduction of 54% (IQR 41—75%) and Qmax improved by 4.1 ml/s. We noted significant reduction in volume, intraprostatic protrusion, and prostatic urethral angle in our collective (p < 0.01). Median volume reduction was 25% (IQR 15%—34%). Bilateral embolization was a significant predictor for volume reduction at follow-up. Multiple linear regression analysis showed significant effect of high initial volume on reduction in IPSS after treatment (p < 0.01). Presence of AdBPH was significantly associated with both, volume loss and clinical improvement in terms of IPSS reduction (p < 0.01). Neither BPH pattern based on the Wassermann type nor modified BPH classification were significantly related with postinterventional IPSS and volume loss.ConclusionsMen benefit from PAE regardless the macroscopic BPH MRI pattern. Preinterventional prostate volume and presence of AdBPH on MRI should be considered for outcome prognosis after PAE.

Treating Benign Accumulation Pattern in Young and Middle-Aged Women According to the Theory of Yang Stagnation

AbstractBenign breast nodules, thyroid nodules, and myoma of the uterus are similar in etiology and pathogenesis. These three diseases are classified according to accumulation patterns in traditional Chinese medicine theory and can be treated with the same prescription. Yang stagnation is the basic pathogenesis of benign accumulation patterns in young and middle-aged women. Its treatment principle should be “unblocking yang,” and its treating methods should include diffusing yang, warming yang, dissolving phlegm, and dissipating stasis, which can unblock yang qi and dissolve stasis. Meanwhile, heart-nourishing and mind-calming ingredients should be included in the prescriptions to improve the clinical manifestations.

Impact of primary care physicians’ education about easy skin lesion diagnosis algorithm on skin cancers screening effects

Introduction and purpose: Number of new cases of skin cancers grows every year. Melanoma malignum is responsible for approximately 75 percent of death from skin cancer. General practitioners are often first medical professionals who see patients with suspicious skin lesions. Early diagnosis can benefit in improving survival rates. Dermoscopy is a useful tool for dermatological diagnostic purposes not only for dermatologists, but also for Primary Care Physicians.This review aims to analyze the role of easy 3-step Triage Amalgamated Dermoscopy Algorithm performed by family medicine physicians in skin cancers detection. Material and methods: We searched PubMed database in order to collect relevant studies about skin cancers diagnoses by family medicine physicians using dermoscopy algorithms. Results: An analysis of multiple studies shows that short Triage Amalgamated Dermoscopy Algorithm training taken by primary care physicians resulted in better diagnosis accuracy of skin cancer identification. After education about 3 benign skin lesion patterns and 7 signs of potential malignancy general practitioners reported more confidence in the diagnostic process and both sensitivity and specificity of examination increased post-training. Conclusion: Teaching Primary Care Physicians how to diagnose patients with suspicious skin lesions using Triage Amalgamated Dermoscopy Algorithm may have a beneficial effect on increasing the number of early-diagnosed skin cancers which may result in improving survival rates.

Identifying and Predicting Diverse Patterns of Benign Nodule Growth.

The natural history of benign thyroid nodules is typically characterized by slow growth and minimal risk of malignant transformation. Available data have, to date, been unable to elucidate the diversity of benign nodule growth patterns over time nor predictive of which patients follow which pattern. We aimed to better define the diverse patterns of benign nodule behavior and their predictors. We prospectively studied 389 consecutive patients with solitary, solid, cytologically benign thyroid nodules ≥1 cm and follow-up ultrasound for at least 4 years. Demographic, sonographic, biochemical data were collected at initial evaluation, and subsequent growth patterns were identified over the follow-up. Predictors of growth at initial evaluation and 3 years of follow-up were defined. The mean (±SD) follow-up was 7.7 (±2.7) years. Three distinct growth patterns were identified: A) stagnant nodules with average growth rate < 0.2 mm/year; B) slow-growing nodules with a rate 0.2 to 1.0 mm/year; and C) fast-growing nodules increasing > 1.0 mm/year. Fast-growing nodules represented 17.2% of the cohort, and were more frequent in patients younger than 50 years (OR 2.2 [1.2-4.1], P = 0.016), and in larger nodules (2.0-2.9 cm, OR 3.5 [1.7-7.1], P = 0.001; >3.0 cm, OR 4.4 [1.8-10.4], P = 0.001 vs reference 1-1.9 cm). In a multiple regression model, nodule growth at 3 years at an average growth rate over 0.2 mm/year over 3 years since initial evaluation was an independent predictor of longer-term fast nodule growth, even after adjusting for age, biological sex, TSH level, and nodule size (P < 0.001). The natural history of benign nodule growth is diverse, with over 80% of nodules demonstrating minimal to no growth long-term. Nearly 20% of cytologically benign nodules may exhibit a fast, continued growth pattern, which can be predicted by the 3-year growth rate pattern. These findings can help inform decision making for tailored benign nodule follow-up and monitoring.

POST MENOPAUSAL BLEEDING PATTERNS IN PREDICTION OF ENDOMETRIAL CARCINOMA

Objective: To determine the demographic profile, patterns of bleeding and histopathological patterns of endometrial biopsy in women presenting with postmenopausal bleeding. Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, CAIMS, Karimnagar from October 2020 to April 2022. Material and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study included women of any parity and age &gt;45 years who had spontaneous cessation of menstruation for the last one year and who presented with abnormal uterine bleeding. Premenopausal women, drug or irradiation induced, or iatrogenic menopause cases were excluded. All patients were admitted, transvaginal ultrasound done (cut off endometrial thickness &gt;4mm) and subjected to dilatation and curettage under anesthesia and endometrial biopsies obtained. Samples were sent for histopathology and followed. Results: A total of 70 women were included. Commonest age group was 61-70 years, and was seen in 38 (54.3%) women, followed by the 52-60 years age group where 18 (25.7%) subjects were observed. Mean age was 62 ± 2.54 years. Twenty-four (35%) women were hypertensive while Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) was seen in 14 (20%). forty (57%) women complained of streaks of blood on the sanitary pad, and in 56 (80%) (P=0.032) there were recurrent episodes. Forty-eight (68.57%) women were multiparous. Atrophic endometrium was the most common benign histopathological pattern, seen in 18 (26%) followed by 16 (23%) chronic endometritis. Endometrial carcinoma was seen in 16 (23%). (p=0.041) Conclusion: Postmenopausal bleeding is an alarming symptom and should be thoroughly investigated with transvaginal ultrasound followed by endometrial biopsy for timely diagnosis and treatment.

Study on Urban Land Ecological Security Pattern and Obstacle Factors in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region

Land ecological security is the material basis of the sustainable development of human society. The coordinated development of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region is a major national strategy of China. Land ecological security is of great significance to the coordinated development of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region and the maintenance of China’s ecological security. In this paper, the pressure–state–response (PSR) model is used to construct an evaluation index system of land ecological security, an entropy-weight technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is used to calculate the land ecological security index in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, and an obstacle degree model is used to reveal the obstacle factors. The results show that the overall level of land ecological security in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region was low, and that the security level presented a pattern of “high in the north and low in the south”. The land ecological security level was mainly affected by the state subsystem and response subsystem, and the average index of the pressure subsystem was 0.543, which reached the safe state. The main obstacle factors are per capita grassland area, per capita forest area, green land rate of built-up area, urbanization rate, per capita cultivated land, etc. This study provides a theoretical basis for the construction of the land ecological security system, sustainable utilization of land resources and regional sustainable development in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region and promotes the formation of a benign circulation pattern of land ecosystem and effective prevention and control of land ecological and environmental risks in the region.

Temporal intermittent rhythmic theta activity (TIRTA): A marker of epileptogenicity?

To describe a novel EEG rhythm, temporal intermittent rhythmic theta activity (TIRTA), and its potential association with epilepsy. We report TIRTA on scalp EEG in a series of 12 patients, all of whom were found to have epilepsy. The clinical and electroencephalographic characteristics of each patient were reviewed. In addition, features that may distinguish TIRTA from benign EEG patterns, including rhythmic temporal theta bursts of drowsiness (RTTBD), were identified. TIRTA was unilateral in all cases. For all patients, TIRTA was seen in the awake and drowsy states. Eight patients also had TIRTA observed during N2 sleep. The average frequency of TIRTA was 5.5Hz and the average duration of a train of TIRTA was 5.25s. In seven cases the morphology was notched in appearance. Temporal intermittent rhythmic delta activity (TIRDA) was seen in seven patients on the same side as TIRTA. Eleven patients also had ipsilateral temporal sharp waves. Abnormal MRI (6/12) and or PET (5/5) findings were ipsilateral to TIRTA. In this preliminary report we suggest that TIRTA may be a novel marker of potential epileptogenicity, possibly representing a higher frequency variant of TIRDA.

Abstract 10579: Prevalence and Morphology of Premature Ventricular Contractions on Routine Athletic Electrocardiogram Screening

Introduction: The clinical implications of incidental premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are poorly understood. Though controversial, athletes often receive electrocardiograms (ECGs) during pre-participation exams. The prevalence and morphologies of PVCs in this cohort have not been widely reported. Recent studies have defined benign PVC morphologic patterns in athlete populations that may guide clinical evaluations. Methods: Digital ECGs were obtained from 10,728 screened athletes aged 14 to 35 at school and professional team screenings in California. Captured PVCs were analyzed using simultaneous frontal and horizontal plane leads, displaying each standard ECG lead in full-length, allowing for morphologic categorization. PVCs were coded for morphology and benign status using recommended criteria outlined in Figure 1. Results: Twenty-six of 10,728 athletes (0.24%) had at least one PVC (Figure 1); 7 of those (27%) had bigeminy and 3 of those (12%) had trigeminy. Overall, participants were 43% female, 62% White, 12% Black, 9% Asian, and 8% Hispanic. Of those with PVCs, 50% were female, 65% were White, 23% were Black, 8% were Asian, and 4% were Hispanic. Twenty-four ECGs (92%) had PVCs with benign patterns, including 17 with right ventricular outflow tract, 5 with left anterior fascicle, and 2 with left posterior fascicle morphology. Two ECGs had non-benign PVCs with left bundle branch patterns and superior axes. Both of these athletes had normal echocardiograms and exercise testing and are being followed closely. Conclusions: We found a low prevalence of PVCs on routine ECG screening of young athletes, although evaluation of PVC prevalence and frequency are limited by the short duration of an ECG. Most incidental PVCs among young athletes had benign patterns. This study also demonstrates the value of digital ECG recorders to display simultaneous frontal and horizontal plane leads for the morphologic categorization of PVCs which may guide further workup.

Incidental Detection of Thyroid Nodule on Carotid Color Doppler Ultrasound in Patients Presenting with Cerebrovascular Diseases

Background: Thyroid nodules are often detected in clinical practice, during physical examination, or accidentally during different imaging techniques. Most of these nodules are characterized as benign, and thyroid cancer is identified in only a small subclass. Ultrasonography is considered an important tool in thyroid nodule evaluation. Therefore, the study aimed to determine the frequency of incidental detection of a nodule of thyroid on carotid color Doppler ultrasound in patients presenting with cerebrovascular diseases. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in the PNS Shifa hospital, Radiology department, from August 2017 to May 2018. Patients (n=110) underwent Color Doppler Ultrasound examinations with a scanner (Xario), furnished with a linear transducer operational at 10 MHz by the researcher. Incidental detection of thyroid nodule was labeled. Demographic detail including name, age, gender, and BMI was noted. Echogenicity and size of the thyroid gland was compared to that of encompassing glandular parenchyma. The data collected were analyzed and interpreted using SPSS version 20. Results: The patient’s mean age was 59.92 ± 11.03 years with the ratio being 1.2:1 between males and females respectively. Diabetes and hypertension were existent in 43(39.1%) and 54(49.1%) patients respectively. Family history of thyroid nodules was present in 31(28.2%) patients. Thyroid nodule was detected in 34(30.91%) patients. The Benign pattern of thyroid nodules on grayscale. However, the histologic pattern of a mildly differentiated follicular thyroid carcinoma was detected. Conclusion: The frequency of incidental detection of thyroid nodule on carotid color Doppler ultrasound was 30.91% in patients presenting with cerebrovascular diseases. Keywords: Carotid Color Doppler Ultrasound; Incidental Detection; Cerebrovascular; Thyroid Nodule.

Never stop wondering: When cells become PAP-art on the slides.

The project named Victoria's cells was created to train health care personnel, especially in low-income countries. This innovative approach is designed to associate benign and malignant cellular images and/or patterns with a range of shapes and color shades to evoke animals, common objects, and colorful aquariums. The project makes use of familiar images to capture the viewer's interest as an aid for cytological interpretation. Cervicovaginal cytology is processed with conventional and liquid-based cytology. The images are visually compelling to highlight the importance of studying cells and their diagnostic significance. Infectious diseases as well as malignant cells are thereby easily recognized. The pictures are organized into different sections, including Victoria's zoo, Victoria's fantasy, and malignant mockery. Branching mycelia resemble a starfish; squamous metaplasia recalls a sea turtle's shell. Among others, different patterns of endometrial, endocervical, and squamous cells can resemble fish tanks populated by cells with the shapes of pufferfish, anglerfish, whales, scorpions, and garfish. The sea transitions to the earth, with a sly cat, a little elephant, a dog, and a koala. Other cellular preparations resemble a gymnast, a geisha, and a plunging diver as well as hummingbirds, a heron, a water lily, and a peony. The malignant mockery section is composed of squamous intraepithelial lesion patterns that resemble monsters, eyes, a foul tongue, eagles, and feathers. In conclusion, the recognition of visual images can make the study of cytology simpler and more enjoyable and serve the final objectives of prevention and cure.

Classification of vein pattern recognition using hybrid deep learning

Recognition of finger vein patterns is essential technique that analyses the finger vein patterns to enable accurate authentication of an individual. A proper, accurate and quick learning of patterns is essentially required for improving the classification pattern. It is essential in developing an intelligent algorithm to effectively study and classify the patterns. In this paper, we develop an improved deep learning hybrid model for feature extraction and classification. A dimensional reduction deep neural network (DR-DNN) model has included a dimensional reduction model for extracting the essential features by reducing the dimensionality of feature datasets. A convolutional neural network (CNN) helps in classifying the benign vein patterns from the malignant vein patterns. The effectiveness is compared against existing deep learning classifiers to measure how effective the deep learning model is used for classifying finger vein patterns for biometric authentication. The results shows that the proposed method achieves an accuracy rate of 97.16% for the proposed method, where the other existing methods including CNN, Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Deep Neural Nets (DNN) has an accuracy rate of 86%, 80.66% and 88.31%, respectively.