Journal of Health & Medical Informatics

To explore pregnant women’s preferences regarding cervical length measurement by ultrasound and treatment with progesterone in relation to preterm birth prevention we performed a discrete choice experiment. Four hospitals, four ultrasound centers and ten midwifery practices spread over the country participated in this study and distributed questionnaires among pregnant women between 15-36 weeks of gestation. Each questionnaire contained 16 choice sets with two screening or treatment options and one opt-out ‘no screening or treatment’ option. Women were asked to consider the following screening/treatment options 1) transvaginal or abdominal cervical length measurement, 2) vaginal or oral administration of progesterone, 3) short-term health risk and 4) long-term health risk for the child. The relative importance of the choices and trade-offs patients were willing to make were analyzed with panel-based mixed logit regression in STATA. Of the 156 questionnaires that were actually handed out, 138 were returned. Overall most respondents made trade-offs between attributes and all screening/treatment characteristics proved important in their decision making. Transvaginal cervical length measurements were not preferred (p=0.01) and was traded only in exchange for an absolute decrease of 6.5% (95% CI 2.6 – 10.4) in long-term neonatal complication rate. Previous experience with adverse neonatal outcome affected the preferences of the women.

Background: Caring for children with special needs can be challenging and stressful for parents. Access to information and support is critical for parents to overcome these challenges. This study aims to study parental experiences and needs of searching and utilizing online information to support the care of their children with special needs. Methods: Forty-nine participants were interviewed. All discussions were transcribed and examined using a thematic analysis method. Results: Three main themes were identified, including information needs, experiences of obtaining and using information, and the advantages and challenges of searching and utilizing Internet information. Conclusions: Availability of up-to-date information and emotional support is beneficial to Chinese parents of children with special needs. Although plenty of information can be accessed through the Internet, parents require eHealth literacy to use and interpret this online material. Conventional sources of information such as community groups remain important for those with low eHealth literacy.

The present study is aimed to elucidate the structural features of novel 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-one urea derivatives required for antibacterial and antifungal activity and to obtain predictive models to guide the rational synthesis of novel activity. The significant best 2D QSAR model (S.aureus) having correlation coefficient r2 = 0.7854 and crossvalidated squared correlation coefficient q2 = 0.7563 with external predictive ability of pred_r2 = 0.7629 was developed. The main aimed to obtain predictive models which may guide the synthesis of more active antimicrobial agents.

Positron Tomography/Computer Tomography (PET/CT) imaging of 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) uptake is frequently used to recognize malignant nature of abnormal findings at anatomical investigations. However, several benign structures can mimic cancer glucose avidity. This case report pertains to a large mediastinal mass, incidentally detected on a coronary Computer Tomography (CT) study and showing heterogeneous signal hyperintensity in T1- weighted sequences at a subsequent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). CT-guided biopsy failed to provide adequate specimen; 18F-FDG PET/CT documented an extremely high glucose analogue consumption (maximum Standardized Uptake Value: 29). In order to exclude every alternative possibility before attempting a potentially hazardous surgery, we hypothesized the possible presence of a hibernoma. To test this hypothesis, we verified the influence of sympathetic innervation on lesion uptake, by repeating 18F-FDG imaging under beta-blockade: this scan documented the complete disappearance of the anomalous tracer uptake. A 6-months follow-up scan documented stable lesion volume and persistently absent 18F-FDG uptake under the beta-blockers, thus presumably excluding the malignant nature of the increased tracer uptake.