Blood metal ions have been widely used to investigate metal-on-metal hip replacements, but their ability to discriminate between well-functioning and failed hips is not known. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has suggested a cut-off level of 7 parts per billion (ppb). We performed a pair-matched, case-control study to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of ...

In this paper, we introduce and analyze a new cut-off priority scheme which provides a better grade-of-service to handoff traffic while maintaining high throughput for the originating calls. A hysteresis control is used for additional robustness. The system model is found to have a general level dependent Quasi-Birthand-Death (QBD) structure. An efficient solution methodology is used taking ful...

conclusions optimal wc values for defining mets were 91.5 cm and 85.5 cm in men and women, respectively. the cut-off values recommended by world organizations are not appropriate for an adult population living in ahvaz city. results the cut-off points of wc, according to a maximum sum of sensitivity plus specificity for detecting at least two components of mets were found to be 91.5 cm and 85.5...

Gliomas are common brain tumours, but obtaining tissue for definitive diagnosis can be difficult. There is, therefore, interest in the use of non-invasive methods to diagnose and grade the disease. Although positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-fluorethyltyrosine (18F-FET) can be used to differentiate between low-grade (LGG) and high-grade (HGG) gliomas, the optimal parameters to measure ...

background: one of the methods used for standard setting is the borderline regression method (brm). this study aims to assess the reliability of brm when the pass-fail standard in an objective structured clinical examination (osce) was calculated by averaging the brm standards obtained for each station separately. materials and methods: in nine stations of the osce with direct observation the e...

Background: Prostate cancer has been reported as a worldwide important kind of cancer and the second most common cause of cancer-related mortality among men. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) serum level is one of the most important markers of prostate cancer diagnosis. While PSA level helps predict the risk of prostate cancer development, researchers still looking for ways to increase the accura...