PURPOSE To study the interscan reproducibility of manual versus automated segmentation of carotid artery plaque components, and the agreement between both methods, in high and lower quality MRI scans. METHODS 24 patients with 30-70% carotid artery stenosis were planned for 3T carotid MRI, followed by a rescan within 1 month. A multicontrast protocol (T1w,T2w, PDw and TOF sequences) was used. ...

The skin conductance response (SCR) is increasingly being used as a measure of sympathetic activation concurrent with neuroscience measurements. We present a method of automated analysis of SCR data in the contexts of event-related cognitive tasks and nonspecific responding to complex stimuli. The primary goal of the method is to accurately measure the classical trough-to-peak amplitude of SCR ...

As an alternative to automated extraction, fecal specimens were processed by investigational lysis/heating (i.e., manual) and by chromatography/centrifugation (i.e., column) methods. ProGastro SSC and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (i.e., STEC) indeterminate rates for 101 specimens were 1.0% to 3.0% for automated, 11.9% for manual, and 24.8% to 37.6% for column methods. Following freeze...

Introduction Methods Subjects MR Image Processing MRI Acquisition Manual Region of Interest (ROI) Definition by Experts Definition of Subcortical Gray Matter Linear Registration Elastic Matching Data Analysis Results The Similarity Between Automated and Manual Measurements The Correlations Between Pairs of Automated and Manual Measurements The Spatial Overlap Between Automatically Edited and Ma...

This study is a method comparison of three region-of-interest (ROI) tracing approaches. fMRI images acquired during an event-related frequency discrimination task were used in this study. Three [(1) manual, (2) semi-automated, (3) automated] approaches were applied to generate the ROI in the caudate nucleus and extract fMRI hemodynamic response (HR) from the ROI. Less activation with weak and d...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate automated CT volumetry in the assessment of living-donor livers for transplant and to compare this technique with software-aided interactive volumetry and manual volumetry. MATERIALS AND METHODS Hepatic CT scans of 18 consecutively registered prospective liver donors were obtained under a liver transplant protocol. Automated liver volumetry ...

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the reliability, accuracy, and time efficiency of automated hearing assessment using a computer-based telemedicine-compliant audiometer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty normal-hearing subjects and eight hearing-impaired subjects were tested with pure-tone air conduction audiometry (125-8,000 Hz) in a manual and automated configuration in a counterbalanced manner...

BACKGROUND An automated sphygmomanometer, the BpTRU, was used in a blood pressure (BP) survey of 2,551 residents in the province of Ontario. Automated BP readings were compared with measurements taken by a mercury sphygmomanometer under standardized conditions in a random 10% sample. METHODS BP was recorded in 238 individuals in random order using both a standard mercury device and an automat...

BACKGROUND In Kenya, the availability of a cheap diagnostic service for HIV-exposed infants has helped scale-up access to treatment, and provided a means by which programs that support Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV can be evaluated. As expected for any large testing program, discrepant and indeterminate results present a significant challenge. METHODS Dried Blood Spots wer...

The prompt detection of bacteremia is a critical function of the clinical microbiology laboratory and blood culture remains the “gold standard” for the detection of bacteremia. Automated continuous-monitoring blood culture systems have detected growth sooner than the manual systems and they have greatly improved the efficiency of blood cultures. Here, in this hospital-based prospective study, w...