Health monitoring

BACKGROUND: The ability to walk is a key issue for independent old age. Optimizing older peoples' opportunities for an autonomous and active life and reducing health disparities requires a better understanding of how to support independent mobility in older people. With increasing age, changes in gait parameters such as step length and cadence are common and have been shown to increase the risk of mobility decline. However, gait assessments are typically based on laboratory measures, even though walking in a laboratory environment may be significantly different from walking in outdoor environments...

Researchers and clinicians often rely on molecular assays like PCR to identify and monitor viral infections, instead of the resource-prohibitive gold standard of viral culture. However, it remains unclear when (if ever) PCR measurements of viral load are reliable indicators of replicating or infectious virus. The recent popularity of PCR protocols targeting subgenomic RNA for SARS-CoV-2 has caused further confusion, as the relationships between subgenomic RNA and standard total RNA assays are incompletely characterized and opinions differ on which RNA type better predicts culture outcomes...

BACKGROUND: Given the rapid expansion of research into digital health interventions (DHIs) for severe mental illness (SMI; eg, schizophrenia and other psychosis diagnoses), there is an emergent need for clear safety measures. Currently, measurement and reporting of adverse events (AEs) are inconsistent across studies. Therefore, an international network, iCharts, was assembled to systematically identify and refine a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for AE reporting in DHI studies for SMI...

Providing emergency care in low resource settings relies on delivery by lower cadres of health workers (LCHW). We describe the development, implementation and mixed methods evaluation of a mobile health (mHealth) triage algorithm based on the WHO Emergency, Triage, Assessment, and Treatment (ETAT) for primary-level care. We conducted an observational study design of implementation research. Key stakeholders were engaged throughout implementation. Clinicians and LCHW at eight primary health centres in Blantyre district were trained to use an mHealth algorithm for triage...

BACKGROUND: Current heart failure (HF) guidelines recommend a multidisciplinary approach, discharge education, and self-management for HF. However, the recommendations are challenging to implement in real-world clinical settings. OBJECTIVE: We developed a mobile health (mHealth) platform for HF self-care to evaluate whether a smartphone app-based intervention with Bluetooth-connected monitoring devices and a feedback system can help improve HF symptoms. METHODS: In this prospective, randomized, multicenter study, we enrolled patients 20 years of age and older, hospitalized for acute HF, and who could use a smartphone from 7 tertiary hospitals in South Korea...

OBJECTIVES: To monitor the oviposition activity of the mosquito Aedes aegypti and of dengue and chikungunya cases in four localities of temperate Argentina, during the 2023 epidemic. METHODS: During the summer and autumn of 2023, the oviposition activity of the mosquito vector was monitored weekly using ovitraps, and the arrival of cases with dengue or chikungunya in Tandil, Olavarría, Bahía Blanca and Laprida were registered. RESULTS: Monthly variations of the percentage of positive traps were similar in the first three locations; in Laprida the mosquito was not detected...

An important provision of the Minamata Convention on Mercury is to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the adopted measures and its implementation. Here, we describe for the first time currently available biotic mercury (Hg) data on a global scale to improve the understanding of global efforts to reduce the impact of Hg pollution on people and the environment. Data from the peer-reviewed literature were compiled in the Global Biotic Mercury Synthesis (GBMS) database (>550,000 data points). These data provide a foundation for establishing a biomonitoring framework needed to track Hg concentrations in biota globally...

This study rigorously assesses the physicochemical, heavy metal concentrations, and bacteriological parameters of celery and its irrigation water across three rural areas of Sulaymaniyah city, Iraq. The investigation revealed that irrigation water's pH ranged significantly from 6.9 to 8.9. Notably, phosphate concentrations (PO4 3- ) exceeded permissible levels in Tanjaro and Kanaswra across all seasons, with the highest recorded concentration being 10.4 mg L-1 during autumn in Kanaswra. Conversely, sulfate (SO4 2- ) and sodium (Na+ ) concentrations remained within standard limits, with SO4 2- peaking at 115...

The continuous expansion of the global vehicle fleet poses a growing threat to environmental quality through heavy metal contamination. In this scenario, monitoring to safeguard public health in urban areas is necessary. Our study involved the collection of 36 street dust and 29 moss samples from roads of a Brazilian metropolis (Recife) with varying traffic intensities as follows: natural reserve (0 vehicles per day), low (< 15,000 vehicles per day), medium (15,000-30,000 vehicles per day), and high (> 30,000 vehicles per day)...

This study sought to evaluate the perceptions of pressure injury (PI) management staff regarding skin failure (SF). Additionally, an analysis of influencing factors based on the collected data was conducted to establish a foundation for targeted SF training. A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was undertaken in October-November 2023, utilising a convenience sampling method involving selected management staff of PI from 16 provinces in China. A total of 501 nursing participants were included, exhibiting an overall perception level that was moderately low...

Genetic improvement of udder health in dairy cows is of high relevance as mastitis is one of the most prevalent diseases. Since it is known that the heritability of mastitis is low and direct data on mastitis cases are often not available in large numbers, auxiliary traits, such as somatic cell count (SCC) are used for the genetic evaluation of udder health. In previous studies, models to predict clinical mastitis based on mid-infrared (MIR) spectral data and a somatic cell count-derived score (SCS) were developed...

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) may have grave consequences for patients. In the case of sepsis, the 30-day mortality rate is about 25%. HAIs cost EU member states an estimated 7 billion Euros annually. Clinical decision support tools may be useful for infection monitoring, early warning, and alerts. MONI, a tool for monitoring nosocomial infections, is used at University Hospital Vienna, but needs to be clinically and technically revised and updated. A new, completely configurable pipeline-based system for defining and processing HAI definitions was developed and validated...

Ketogenic dietary therapies (KDT) are diets that induce a metabolic condition comparable to fasting. All types of KDT comprise a reduction in carbohydrates whilst dietary fat is increased up to 90% of daily energy expenditure. The amount of protein is normal or slightly increased. KDT are effective, well studied and established as non-pharmacological treatments for pediatric patients with refractory epilepsy and specific inherited metabolic diseases such as Glucose Transporter Type 1 Deficiency Syndrome. Patients and caregivers have to contribute actively to their day-to-day care especially in terms of (self-) calculation and (self-) provision of dietary treatment as well as (self-) measurement of blood glucose and ketones for therapy monitoring...

BACKGROUND: The Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard was proposed and released to solve the interoperability problems of the electronic health records. The FHIR Subscription resources are used to establish real-time event notifications from the FHIR server to another system. There are several communication channels such as rest-hook and websocket. The objective of our work is to compare the performance of the FHIR subscription using the rest-hook and websocket channels...

BACKGROUND: Elevating systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) independently influences clinical outcomes and adverse cardiovascular events. Blood pressure can be affected by modifiable (such as diets and physical activities) and non-modifiable factors (such as age and gender). Elevated blood pressure (EBP or formerly prehypertension) during childhood is associated with hypertension incidence in later adulthood. OBJECTIVES: This cross- sectional study investigated modifiable risk factors for blood pressure among children (aged 3-12)...

BACKGROUND: Dementia is becoming a significant public health concern, affecting approximately 130,000 individuals in Austria, whereby nearly 40% of the cases are attributed to modifiable risk factors. Multidomain lifestyle interventions have thereby demonstrated significant effects in reducing the risk of dementia. OBJECTIVES: The goal was to define an interoperability framework to conduct standardized monitoring in clinical trials for enhancing dementia risk mitigation...

The brain-computer interface (BCI) allows the human or animal brain to directly interact with the external environment through the neural interfaces, thus playing the role of monitoring, protecting, improving/restoring, enhancing, and replacing. Recording electrophysiological information such as brain neural signals is of great importance in health monitoring and disease diagnosis. According to the electrode position, it can be divided into non-implantable, semi-implantable, and implantable. Among them, implantable neural electrodes can obtain the highest-quality electrophysiological information, so they have the most promising application...

The composition of species and the physiological status of microalgal cells serve as significant indicators for monitoring marine environments. Symbiotic with corals, Symbiodiniaceae are more sensitive to the environmental response. However, current methods for evaluating microalgae tend to be population-based indicators that cannot be focused on single-cell level, ignoring potentially heterogeneous cells as well as cell state transitions. In this study, we proposed a microalgal cell detection method based on computer vision and microfluidics, which combined microscopic image processing, microfluidic chip and convolutional neural network to achieve label-free, sheathless, automated and high-throughput microalgae identification and cell state assessment...

While levodopa (L-Dopa) is the primary treatment for alleviating Parkinson's disease (PD), its efficacy is hindered by challenges such as a short half-life and inconsistent plasma levels. As PD progresses, the rising need for increased and more frequent L-Dopa doses coupled with symptom fluctuations and dyskinesias underscores the urgency for improved comprehension of the interplay between L-Dopa levels and PD motor symptoms. Addressing this critical need, we present a decentralized testing method using a disposable biosensor strip and a universal slope (U-slope) calibration-free approach...

Oxidative stress often affects the structure and metabolism of lipids, which in the case of polyunsaturated free fatty acids (PUFAs) leads to a self-catalysed chain reaction of lipid peroxidation (LPO). The LPO of PUFAs leads to the formation of various aldehydes, such as malondialdehyde, 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), 4-hydroxyhexenal, and 4-oxo-2-nonenal. Among the reactive aldehydes, 4-HNE is the major bioactive product of LPO, which has a high affinity for binding to proteins. This review briefly discusses the available information on the applicability of assessment options for 4-HNE and its protein adducts determined by immunosorbent assay (the 4-HNE-ELISA) in patients with various diseases known to be associated with oxidative stress, LPO, and 4-HNE...