The public health benefit of conjugate pneumococcal vaccine (PCV) in preventing pneumonia would only be appreciated if the tool used for measuring "pneumococcal pneumonia" had good sensitivity. Exploratory studies in South Africa indicate that the sensitivity of "radiologically-confirmed pneumonia" (CXR-AC) underestimates the burden of pneumococcal pneumonia prevented by PCV by as much as 63%. ...

Extended Reality (XR) applications, which may encompass Augmented (AR) and Virtual (VR), commonly involve immersive virtual environments that are based on real physical environments. Transmitting the extensive color depth image data for representing a environment over communication network to create corresponding at remote location is very challenging due enormous volumes time constraints of re...

OBJECTIVE To determine the sensitivity and specificity of a Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) program for scoring chest x-rays (CXRs) of presumptive tuberculosis (TB) patients compared to Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert). METHOD Consecutive presumptive TB patients with a cough of any duration were offered digital CXR, and opt out HIV testing. CXRs were electronically scored as normal (CAD score ≤ 60) or ab...

BACKGROUND Chest radiographs are taken daily as a part of routine investigations in Intensive care unit (ICU) patients. They are less effective and unlikely to alter the management of the majority of these patients compared to the radiographs obtained when indicated. According to the American College of Radiology (ACR) Appropriateness criteria, only selective ordering of chest radiographs is re...

BACKGROUND Elimination of daily-routine chest radiographs (CXRs) may influence chest computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound practice in critically ill patients. METHODS This was a retrospective cohort study including all patients admitted to a university-affiliated intensive care unit during two consecutive periods of 5 months, one before and one after elimination of daily-routine CXR. Chest...

BACKGROUND Proper placement of central venous catheter (CVC) tip could reduce early and late catheter-related complications. Although the live fluoroscopy is standard of care for placement of the catheter, it is not available in many centers. Therefore, the present study evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of bedside chest X-ray (CXR) for proper positioning of the catheter tip. MATERIAL...

SETTING Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) clinic for employees of a gold mine, Free State, South Africa. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the process of screening for active tuberculosis (TB) prior to commencing TB preventive therapy in HIV-infected individuals. DESIGN Cross-sectional study comparing performance of various combinations of screening tests for TB against a gold standard diagnosis of TB...