Mechanism-Based Biomarker Prediction for Low-Grade Inflammation in Liver and Adipose Tissue

Metabolic disorders, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes have a large impact on global health, especially in industrialized countries. Tissue-specific chronic low-grade inflammation is a key contributor to complications in metabolic disorders. To support therapeutic approaches to these complications, it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding...

SAREF4health: IoT standard-based ontology-driven healthcare systems

Recently, a number of ontology-driven healthcare systems have been leveraged by the Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies, which offer opportunities to improve patient monitoring and abnormal situation detection with support of medical wearables and cloud infrastructure. Usually, these systems rely on IoT ontologies to represent sensor data...

Wireless non-invasive continuous respiratory monitoring with FMCW radar a clinical validation study

Altered respiratory rate is one of the first symptoms of medical conditions that require timely intervention, e.g., sepsis or opioid-induced respiratory depression. To facilitate continuous respiratory rate monitoring on general hospital wards a contactless, non-invasive, prototype monitor was developed using frequency modulated continuous wave...

With how many users should you test a medical infusion pump? Sampling strategies for usability tests on high-risk systems

Usability testing is recognized as an effective means to improve the usability of medical devices and prevent harm for patients and users. Effectiveness of problem discovery in usability testing strongly depends on size and representativeness of the sample. We introduce the late control strategy, which is to continuously monitor effectiveness of...

Internet-based self-management offers an opportunity to achieve better asthma control in adolescent

Background: Internet and short message service are emerging tools for chronic disease management in adolescents, but few data exist on the barriers to and benefits of internet-based asthma self-management. Our objective was to reveal the barriers and benefits perceived by adolescents with well-controlled and poorly controlled asthma to current...

Reliability of an infrared forehead skin thermometer for core temperature measurements

The SensorTouch thermometer performs an infrared measurement of the skin temperature above the Superficial Temporal Artery (STA). This study evaluates the validity and the accuracy of the SensorTouch thermometer. Two experiments were performed in which the body temperature was measured with a rectal sensor, with an oesophageal sensor and with...

Burden of informal caregiving for stroke patients: Identification of caregivers at risk of adverse health effects

Background: We assessed the objective and subjective burden of caregiving for stroke patients and investigated which characteristics of the patient, the informal caregiver and the objective burden contribute most to subjective burden and to the condition of feeling substantially burdened. Methods: We studied a sample of 151 stroke survivors and...

Investigating the role of natural phyto-oestrogens on bone health in postmenopausal women

Research on the bone effects of natural phyto-oestrogens after menopause is at a relatively early stage. Published studies are few, difficult to compare and often inconclusive, due in part to design weaknesses. Currently, many questions remain to be answered including to what extent a safe daily intake may prevent postmenopausal bone loss. These...

Het instellen op insuline van patiënten met diabetes mellitus type 2: In een transmurale organisatievorm minstens even effectief als poliklinisch; een retrospectief onderzoek met 4 jaar follow-up [Initiating insulin therapy in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2: In a transmural form of care at least as effective as an outpatients form; a retrospective study with a 4-year follow-up]

Objective. Assessing whether the initiation of insulin therapy in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 can be delivered as effectively in a structured transmural care model as in the more usual outpatients structure. Design. Retrospective comparative cohort study. Method. In 1997 data were collected from 52 patients with diabetes mellitus type...

Do patients matter? Contribution of patient and care provider characteristics to the adherence of general practitioners and midwives to the Dutch national guidelines on imminent miscarriage

Objective - To assess the relative contribution of patient and care provider characteristics to the adherence of general practitioners (GPs) and midwives to two specific recommendations in the Dutch national guidelines on imminent miscarriage. The study focused on performing physical examinations at the first contact and making a follow up...

IPCS guidelines for the monitoring of genotoxic effects of carcinogens in humans

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide concise guidance on the planning, performing and interpretation of studies to monitor groups or individuals exposed to genotoxic agents. Most human carcinogens are genotoxic but not all genotoxic agents have been shown to be carcinogenic in humans. Although the main interest in these studies is due...

Determination of N7-methylguanine in DNA of white blood cells from cancer patients treated with dacarbazine

An ELISA method was used to determine N7-methylguanine (N7-MeGua) adducts in DNA of white blood cells from cancer patients treated with the methylating antitumor drug dacarbazine by i.v. administration. From four patients who received dacarbazine only, at dosages of 250, 400 or 800 mg/m2, the blood samples were collected before and several days...