Search

Background and Purpose: Deep learning image reconstruction allows faster MR imaging acquisitions while matching or exceeding the standard of care and can create synthetic images from existing data sets. This multicenter, multireader spine study evaluated the performance of synthetically created STIR compared with acquired STIR., Materials and Methods: From a multicenter, multiscanner data base of 328 clinical cases, a nonreader neuroradiologist randomly selected 110 spine MR imaging studies in 93 patients (sagittal T1, T2, and STIR) and classified them into 5 categories of disease and healthy. A DICOM-based deep learning application generated a synthetically created STIR series from the sagittal T1 and T2 images. Five radiologists (3 neuroradiologists, 1 musculoskeletal radiologist, and 1 general radiologist) rated the STIR quality and classified disease pathology (study 1, n = 80). They then assessed the presence or absence of findings typically evaluated with STIR in patients with trauma (study 2, n = 30). The readers evaluated studies with either acquired STIR or synthetically created STIR in a blinded and randomized fashion with a 1-month washout period. The interchangeability of acquired STIR and synthetically created STIR was assessed using a noninferiority threshold of 10%., Results: For classification, there was a decrease in interreader agreement expected by randomly introducing synthetically created STIR of 3.23%. For trauma, there was an overall increase in interreader agreement by +1.9%. The lower bound of confidence for both exceeded the noninferiority threshold, indicating interchangeability of synthetically created STIR with acquired STIR. Both the Wilcoxon signed-rank and t tests showed higher image-quality scores for synthetically created STIR over acquired STIR ( P  < .0001)., Conclusions: Synthetically created STIR spine MR images were diagnostically interchangeable with acquired STIR, while providing significantly higher image quality, suggesting routine clinical practice potential., (© 2023 by American Journal of Neuroradiology.)

Background: Research has shown children disproportionately gain excess weight over the summer months (vs. school months), with stronger effects for children with obesity. However, the question has not been investigated among children receiving care in paediatric weight management (PWM) programs., Objective: To test for seasonal variability in weight change among youth with obesity in PWM care enrolled in the Pediatric Obesity Weight Evaluation Registry (POWER)., Method: Longitudinal evaluation of a prospective cohort from 2014 to 2019 among youth in 31 PWM programs. Change in percentage of the 95th percentile for BMI (%BMIp95) was compared by quarter., Results: Participants (N = 6816) were primarily ages 6-11 (48%), female (54%), 40% non-Hispanic White, 26% Hispanic and 17% Black, and 73% had severe obesity. Children were enrolled on average 424.9 ± 401.5 days. Participants reduced their %BMIp95 every season, but compared with Quarter 3 (July-September), reductions were significantly greater in Q1 (Jan-March, b = -0.27, 95%CI -0.46, -0.09), Q2 (April-June, b = -0.21, CI -0.40, -0.03), and Q4 (October-December, b = -0.44, CI -0.63, -0.26)., Conclusion and Relevance: Across 31 clinics nationwide, children reduced their %BMIp95 every season, but reductions were significantly smaller during the summer quarter. While PWM successfully mitigated excess weight gain during every period, summer remains a high-priority time., (© 2023 World Obesity Federation.)

Background: Adherence to dietary interventions is a significant barrier in the treatment of childhood obesity. Time-limited eating (TLE) is a simple dietary approach that limits food intake to a given number of consecutive hours per day, but parental and youth acceptability of TLE in youth with obesity is unknown. This study explored the feasibility of utilizing TLE among parents and youth attending pediatric weight management (PWM)., Methods: Members of COMPASS (Childhood Obesity Multi-Program Analysis and Study System) developed a survey to assess the acceptability of TLE in families attending PWM, which included patient characteristics, current diet and sleep schedules, and interests in trying TLE. The survey was administered electronically via REDCap or manually to parents of patients between the ages of 8-17 years old and to patients 11-17 years old attending one of five PWM practices in the COMPASS network., Results: Patients (n=213) were 13.0 ± 2.5 years old, 58% female, 52% White, 22% Black, 17% Hispanic/Latino, and 47% reported a diagnosed psychological disorder. On average, parents reported their child's daily eating spanned 12.5 ± 1.9 hours (7:35am - 8:05pm) and included 5.6 ± 1.6 eating bouts (meals + snacks). Most parents reported being likely to try TLE ≤12 hours/d (TLE12: 66%), which was similar to the likelihood of following a nutrient-balanced diet (59%). Likelihood was lower for TLE ≤10 hours/d (TLE10: 39%) or ≤8 hours/d (TLE8: 26%) (p<0.001 for both). Interest in TLE was not consistently related to patient age, sex, or ethnicity, but was lower in patients with a psychiatric diagnosis vs. no diagnosis (TLE8: 19% vs. 32%; p=0.034). Patients of parents who reported being likely to try TLE, compared to those unlikely to try TLE, had shorter eating windows (p<0.001) and ate fewer snacks (p=0.006)., Conclusions: Two-thirds of parents with children attending PWM programs report interest in TLE ≤12 hours/d regardless of demographic characteristics, but interest wanes when limiting eating to ≤10 or ≤8 hours per day. Time-limited eating appears to be a feasible option in PWM settings provided treatment options are individualized based on the interests and barriers of patients and their families., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Tucker, Siegel, Murray, Han, Boyer, Reed, Allenby and Novick.)

INTRODUCTION The HealthPathways programme is an online health information system used mainly in primary health care to promote a consistent and integrated approach to patient care. AIM The aim of this study is to perform a scoping review of the methodologies used in published impact and outcomes evaluations of HealthPathways programmes. METHODS The review included qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods evaluations of the impact or outcome of HealthPathways. MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and Web of Science databases were searched. Seven programme aims were identified in the impact and outcome evaluation: (1) increased awareness and use of HealthPathways; (2) general practitioners are supported to adopt best practice, patient-centred care; (3) increased appropriate use of resources and services; (4) improved quality of referrals; (5) enhanced consistent care and management of health conditions; (6) improved patient journeys through the local health system; and (7) reduction in health-care cost and increased value for money. RESULTS Twenty-one studies were included in the final review; 15 were research papers and six were reports. 'Increased awareness and use of HealthPathways' was the most frequent programme aim evaluated (n = 12). Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, as well as prospective and retrospective data collections, have been adopted to evaluate the impact and outcome of HealthPathways. DISCUSSION Assessing the impacts and outcomes of HealthPathways may be challenging due to limitations in primary data and the interconnectedness of change across the measured aims. Each aim may therefore require specific methodologies sensitive enough to capture the impact that HealthPathways are making over time.

Background: Audiologists may choose to evaluate auditory temporal processing in assessing auditory processing abilities. Some may decide to use measures of nonverbal stimuli such as tonal or noise gap detection. Others may decide to use verbal measures such as time compressed sentences (TCS). Many may choose to use both., Purpose: Since people typically come to audiologists for auditory processing testing complaining of problems processing verbal stimuli, the question arises whether measures of nonverbal stimuli provide evidence regarding a person's abilities to processing verbal stimuli. That is, are there significant correlations between measures of verbal stimuli and nonverbal stimuli that are used to evaluate auditory temporal processing?, Research Design: The present investigation is an exploratory study using file review of 104 people seen for routine auditory processing evaluations by the authors., Study Sample: A file review was completed based on data from 104 people seen for auditory processing evaluations., Data Collection and Analyses: The data from these 104 files were used to evaluate whether there are any correlations between verbal and nonverbal measures of auditory temporal processing. The verbal measure used was the TCS subtest of the SCAN-3 while the nonverbal measures included the gap detection screening from the SCAN-3 as well as the gaps-in-noise measures. Results from these tests were compared to determine whether any significant correlations were found based on results from Pearson product moment correlational analyses., Results: None of the nonverbal measures were found to have a significant correlation with the TCS test findings based on the Pearson correlations used to analyze the data., Conclusion: Results indicate that there are no significant correlations (relationships) between measures of auditory temporal processing using nonverbal stimuli versus verbal stimuli based on the tests used in the present investigation. These findings lead to a conclusion that tests using nonverbal stimuli are measuring different auditory processes than the measure of verbal stimuli used in the present investigation. Since people typically come complaining about understanding verbal input, it is concluded that audiologists should use some verbal measure of auditory temporal processing in their auditory processing test battery., Competing Interests: None declared., (American Academy of Audiology. This article is published by Thieme.)

Eliciting a weight history can provide clinically important information to aid in treatment decision-making. This view is consistent with the life course perspective of obesity and the aim of patient-centered care, one of six domains of health care quality. However, thus far, the value and practicality of including a weight history in the clinical assessment and treatment of patients with obesity have not been systematically explored. For these reasons, the Clinical Committee of The Obesity Society established a task force to review and assess the available evidence to address five key questions. It is concluded that weight history is an essential component of the medical history for patients presenting with overweight or obesity, and there are strong and emerging data that demonstrate the importance of life stage, duration of exposure to obesity, maximum BMI, and group-based trajectory modeling in predicting risk for increased morbidity and mortality. Consideration of these and other patient-specific factors may improve risk stratification and clinical decision-making for screening, counseling, and management. Recommendations are provided for the key elements that should be included in a weight history, and several needs for future clinical research are outlined., (© 2019 The Obesity Society.)