Clinical keratoconus (KCN) detection is a challenging and time-consuming task. In the diagnosis process, ophthalmologists must revise demographic and clinical ophthalmic examinations. The latter include slit-lamb, corneal topographic maps, and Pentacam indices (PI). We propose an Ensemble of Deep Transfer Learning (EDTL) based on corneal topographic maps. We consider four pretrained networks, SqueezeNet (SqN), AlexNet (AN), ShuffleNet (SfN), and MobileNet-v2 (MN), and fine-tune them on a dataset of KCN and normal cases, each including four topographic maps. We also consider a PI classifier. Then, our EDTL method combines the output probabilities of each of the five classifiers to obtain a decision based on the fusion of probabilities. Individually, the classifier based on PI achieved 93.1% accuracy, whereas the deep classifiers reached classification accuracies over 90% only in isolated cases. Overall, the average accuracy of the deep networks over the four corneal maps ranged from 86% (SfN) to 89.9% (AN). The classifier ensemble increased the accuracy of the deep classifiers based on corneal maps to values ranging (92.2% to 93.1%) for SqN and (93.1% to 94.8%) for AN. Including in the ensemble-specific combinations of corneal maps’ classifiers and PI increased the accuracy to 98.3%. Moreover, visualization of first learner filters in the networks and Grad-CAMs confirmed that the networks had learned relevant clinical features. This study shows the potential of creating ensembles of deep classifiers fine-tuned with a transfer learning strategy as it resulted in an improved accuracy while showing learnable filters and Grad-CAMs that agree with clinical knowledge. This is a step further towards the potential clinical deployment of an improved computer-assisted diagnosis system for KCN detection to help ophthalmologists to confirm the clinical decision and to perform fast and accurate KCN treatment.
Background/objectives: Inflammatory mediators such as prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and nitric oxide (NO) are key indicators of pulp response to mechanical trauma. However, the influence of cavity depth on their release dynamics remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of different cavity depths—moderate (without pulp exposure) and deep (with pulp exposure)—on the release of PGE2 and NO in the pulp tissue of rat mandibular incisors at two time intervals (3 and 9 h).Methods: In total, 40 male Wistar rats were divided into two main groups (n = 20) based on cavity depth. A split-mouth design was used, with cavities of different depths prepared on the left mandibular incisors, leaving the right incisors without cavities as
... Show MoreObjectives: To identify the frequency and types of microsatellite instability among a group of sporadic CRC patients and to correlate the findings with clinicopathological characteristics. Methods: During an 8-month period, all patients with sporadic CRC who attended to two teaching hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq were recruited to this cross-sectional study regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, or tumor characteristics. Demographic, clinical, and histopathological features were recorded. DNA was extracted from FFPE-blocks of the resected tumors and normal tissues. PCR amplification of five microsatellite mononucleotide repeat loci (BAT25, BAT26, NR-21, NR-24, and MONO-27) and 2 pentanucleotide repeat control markers (Penta C and Pent
... Show MoreHuman herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) infection has increased recently in Arabic countries. HHV-8 in healthy persons does not necessarily cause life-threatening infection, and however, it causes a more severe infection among immunocompromised patients. The distribution of HHV-8 genotypes varies according to ethnicity and depends on the geographic region prior rapid development of global travel. A cross sectional prospective study included a hundred healthy blood donor samples with a mean age of (36.60±10.381), 81% were positive for molecular detection of HHV-8 DNA. PCR results for HHV-8 were strongly related with risk factors such as the number of sexual relations, previous surgeries, blood transfusion, dental operation, and the number of b
... Show MoreInfection with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is widely prevalent in humans and animals. Infection with Toxoplasma may associate with miscarriage in many pregnant women due to infection. In this study, the level of lutetropic hormone (LTH), folliclestimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) was measured in pregnant women suffering from toxoplasmosis using mini-VIDAS®technique. Results showed that pregnant women have high concentration of both LTH and FSH hormone(10.80 ± 6.53) ng/ml and (9.51 ± 2.40) μIU/ml respectively, while the concentration of LH hormone was lower than normal(4.49 ± 0.56) μIU/ml. Such finding is to suggest that infection with T. gondii is interfering with these hormones in pregnant women.
Background: Klebsiella pneumoniae were considered as normal flora of skin, and intestine. It can cause damage to human lungs; the danger of this bacterium is related to exposure to the hospital surroundings. materials and methods: the detection of Klebsiella pneumoniae on morphological and biochemical tests and then assured with VITEK 2 system. Resistance to antibiotics was determined by Kirby-Baeur method. And genotyping of IMP-1 in isolates was done by PCR technique, then biofilm formation was identified by Micro titer plate method. Results: The present study included a collecting of 50 specimens from different clinical specimens, (blood 40%, urine 30%, sputum 20%, wound infection 10%); 10 isolates were identified as K
... Show MoreBackground: The diagnosis of prostatic pathology may be of challenging , as some difficult and suspected, atypical cases may lack basal cell layer by routine H&E sections . Antibodies against 34BE12(HMW-CK) and p63 aid the diagnosis of such cases , to distinguish benign from malignant prostatic lesions.
Objective: to identify basal cells in atypical prostatic lesions ,and distinguish benign from malignant prostatic lesions.
Type of the study: A retro-spective study.
Methods: 115cases of paraffin embedded prostatic tissue blocks ,diagnosed as : 76 cases were benign prostatic hy
... Show MoreBy definition, the detection of protein complexes that form protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs) is an NP-hard problem. Evolutionary algorithms (EAs), as global search methods, are proven in the literature to be more successful than greedy methods in detecting protein complexes. However, the design of most of these EA-based approaches relies on the topological information of the proteins in the PPIN. Biological information, as a key resource for molecular profiles, on the other hand, acquired a little interest in the design of the components in these EA-based methods. The main aim of this paper is to redesign two operators in the EA based on the functional domain rather than the graph topological domain. The perturb
... Show MoreThe meniscus has a crucial function in human anatomy, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (M.R.I.) plays an essential role in meniscus assessment. It is difficult to identify cartilage lesions using typical image processing approaches because the M.R.I. data is so diverse. An M.R.I. data sequence comprises numerous images, and the attributes area we are searching for may differ from each image in the series. Therefore, feature extraction gets more complicated, hence specifically, traditional image processing becomes very complex. In traditional image processing, a human tells a computer what should be there, but a deep learning (D.L.) algorithm extracts the features of what is already there automatically. The surface changes become valuable when
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