Advanced Electrocardiography Can Identify Occult Cardiomyopathy in Doberman Pinschers

Recently, multiple advanced resting electrocardiographic (A-ECG) techniques have improved the diagnostic value of short-duration ECG in detection of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in humans. This study investigated whether 12-lead A-ECG recordings could accurately identify the occult phase of DCM in dogs. Short-duration (3-5 min) high-fidelity 12-lead ECG recordings were obtained from 31 privately-owned, clinically healthy Doberman Pinschers (5.4 +/- 1.7 years, 11/20 males/females). Dogs were divided into 2 groups: 1) 19 healthy dogs with normal echocardiographic M-mode measurements: left ventricular internal diameter in diastole (LVIDd . 47mm) and in systole (LVIDs . 38mm) and normal 24-hour ECG recordings (100 VPCs/24h; 1/12 dogs had only abnormal 24-hour ECG recordings (>100 VPCs/24h). ECG recordings were evaluated via custom software programs to calculate multiple parameters of high-frequency (HF) QRS ECG, heart rate variability, QT variability, waveform complexity and 3-D ECG. Student's t-tests determined 19 ECG parameters that were significantly different (P < 0.05) between groups. Principal component factor analysis identified a 5-factor model with 81.4% explained variance. QRS dipolar and non-dipolar voltages, Cornell voltage criteria and QRS waveform residuum were increased significantly (P < 0.05), whereas mean HF QRS amplitude was decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in dogs with occult DCM. For the 5 selected parameters the prediction of occult DCM was performed using a binary logistic regression model with Chi-square tested significance (P < 0.01). ROC analyses showed that the five selected ECG parameters could identify occult ECG with sensitivity 89% and specificity 83%. Results suggest that 12-lead A-ECG might improve diagnostic value of short-duration ECG in earlier detection of canine DCM as five selected ECG parameters can with reasonable accuracy identify occult DCM in Doberman Pinschers. Future extensive clinical studies need to clarify if 12-lead A-ECG could be useful as an additional screening test for canine DCM

Psychological factors that maintain tinnitus handicap: The role of automatic thoughts and coping strategies

Psychological factors that maintain tinnitus handicap: The role of automatic thoughts and coping strategie

Psychological factors that maintain tinnitus handicap: The role of automatic thoughts and coping strategies

Psychological factors that maintain tinnitus handicap: The role of automatic thoughts and coping strategie

Tipos urbanos (en trama) de la habitación colectiva: relación de los tipos urbanos y la construcción de la identidad porteña

"En los siguientes párrafos se buscará reconocer cuáles fueron los resultados sociales de la aplicación de los códigos de edificación y de planeamiento y describir las tipologías urbanas que llevaron a tales modos de habitar. A tal fin se expondrán los postulados de los códigos a través de la historia, el contexto social en la ciudad de Buenos Aires que determinó su evolución y las tipologías que resultaron de la aplicación de los mismos." (pag. 2

Accounting for modelling errors in model-based diagnosis by using Gaussian process models

Imperfections in process models, if ignored, may affect reliability of the diagnostic system, for example through excessive false alarm rates. The problem tackled in this paper is how to handle unmodelled effects, caused by imperfect nominal models. We propose a covariance model, which builds on the idea that bias in nominal model can be described by a stochastic process. The Gaussian process model is used to capture the discrepancy between reality and nominal model, hence resulting in a refined model of the plant. With unmodelled dynamics as a second-order stochastic process, fault detection problem reduces to the problem of statistical decision making. The onset of a fault is inferred by comparing the statistical pattern of the residuals, collected under current operating mode with the pattern in the nominal (fault-free) condition. Major novelty of the approach resides in employing Jensen-Renyi divergence as a means to express the "distance" between the two corresponding ensembles of distributions. The ideas of the approach and their potentials are demonstrated on a simulated solid oxide fuel cell system