Internet of Things Technologies and Machine Learning Methods for Parkinson's Disease Diagnosis, Monitoring and Management: A Systematic Review.

Parkinson's disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that affects a large portion of the population, especially the elderly. It manifests with motor, cognitive and other types of symptoms, decreasing significantly the patients' quality of life. The recent advances in the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence fields, including the subdomains of machine learning and deep learning, can support Parkinson's disease patients, their caregivers and clinicians at every stage of the disease, maximizing the treatment effectiveness and minimizing the respective healthcare costs at the same time. In this review, the considered studies propose machine learning models, trained on data acquired via smart devices, wearable or non-wearable sensors and other Internet of Things technologies, to provide predictions or estimations regarding Parkinson's disease aspects. Seven hundred and seventy studies have been retrieved from three dominant academic literature databases. Finally, one hundred and twelve of them have been selected in a systematic way and have been considered in the state-of-the-art systematic review presented in this paper. These studies propose various methods, applied on various sensory data to address different Parkinson's disease-related problems. The most widely deployed sensors, the most commonly addressed problems and the best performing algorithms are highlighted. Finally, some challenges are summarized along with some future considerations and opportunities that arise.

Effect of Dietary Seaweed Supplementation in Cows on Milk Macrominerals, Trace Elements and Heavy Metal Concentrations.

This study investigated the effect of seaweed supplementation in dairy cow diets on milk yield, basic composition, and mineral concentrations. Thirty-seven Icelandic cows were split into three diet treatments: control (CON, no seaweed), low seaweed (LSW, 0.75% concentrate dry matter (DM), 13-40 g/cow/day), and high seaweed (HSW, 1.5% concentrate DM, 26-158 g/cow/day). Cows were fed the same basal diet of grass silage and concentrate for a week, and then were introduced to the assigned experimental diets for 6 weeks. The seaweed mix of 91% Ascophyllum nodosum: 9% Laminaria digitata (DM basis), feed, and milk samples were collected weekly. Data were analyzed using a linear mixed effects model, with diet, week, and their interaction as fixed factors, cow ID as random factor, and the pre-treatment week data as a covariate. When compared with CON milk, LSW and HSW milk had, respectively, less Se (-1.4 and -3.1 µg/kg milk) and more I (+744 and +1649 µg/kg milk), while HSW milk also had less Cu (-11.6 µg/kg milk) and more As (+0.17 µg/kg milk) than CON milk. The minimal changes or concentrations in milk for Se, Cu, and As cannot be associated with any effects on consumer nutrition, but care should be taken when I-rich seaweed is fed to cows to avoid excessive animal I supply and milk I concentrations.

Disseminated metastatic cutaneous melanoma to pancreas and upper gastrointestinal tract diagnosed by endoscopic ultrasound: an unusual case.

There is a wide variety of pancreatic neoplasms identified, but the great majority of them are of primary origin. Metastatic disease in the pancreatic parenchyma is quite rare (2-5% of pancreatic malignancies) and most often is quite difficult to differentiate from other primary lesions. Most of the imaging studies fail to give certain discriminating features for metastatic pancreatic neoplasms, contrary to endoscopic ultrasound and tissue sampling, which can provide an accurate diagnosis. In this report, we present a case of a male middle aged man who was admitted to our hospital with painless jaundice and finally was diagnosed with a cutaneous scalp melanoma dispersedly metastasized to the pancreas and upper gastrointestinal tract (stomach and duodenum).

Distinct features of circulating microparticles and their relationship with disease activity in inflammatory bowel disease.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that circulating microparticles (MPs) and annexin (+) platelet-derived MPs (PDMPs) are increased in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of our study was to characterize the abundance, origin, and annexin V binding of MPs in patients with IBD and correlate them with the disease characteristics. METHODS: Case-control study of 46 IBD patients (23 Crohn's disease, 23 ulcerative colitis) and 40 matched healthy controls (HC). MPs were divided according to annexin V binding, their origin was estimated based on specific cell membrane markers in plasma samples and their number was calculated via flow cytometry. Clinical and laboratory activity indices were also analyzed. RESULTS: Annexin (-) PDMPs (P=0.0004), total (P=0.04) and annexin (+) monocyte-derived MPs (P=0.02) were increased and annexin (-) total MPs (P=0.0007) were decreased in IBD patients compared to HC. The annexin (+)/(-) ratio of all MP types were significantly elevated in IBD patients compared to HC (P<0.003). IBD patients with active disease displayed elevated total and annexin (+) total MPs, total, annexin (+) and (-) PDMPs compared with those in remission (P<0.05). Annexin (-) PDMPs were considerably increased in IBD patients with active compared to those with inactive disease (P=0.0013). Total and annexin (-) PDMPs were significantly correlated with most of the disease activity indices (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The majority of circulating MPs, their counterparts and particularly annexin (-) PDMPs are increased in active IBD patients. Annexin (+)/(-) ratio proved to be the most reliable distinctive MP index between HC and IBD patients.

Novel influenza A (H1N1) infection vs. common influenza-like illness: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND: On June 11th, 2009 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century. Data regarding the clinical characteristics and course of this viral infectious disease are still being assessed. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the possible differences in clinical course and outcome between H1N1-positive [H1N1(+)] and negative [H1N1(-)] patients. MATERIAL/METHODS: This prospective study was conducted between July 2009 and January 2010 in a regional hospital in Greece. The study population consisted of 165 patients aged 14 years or older, with influenza-like illness (ILI) who, according to CDC recommendations, fulfilled the criteria for diagnostic influenza testing. Enrolled patients underwent a detailed diagnostic work-up. Infection by the H1N1 virus was diagnosed using real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, from pharyngeal swab specimens. RESULTS: We identified 81 H1N1 (+) (49%) patients. Statistical analysis revealed that H1N1(+) patients were significantly younger (median age 27 vs. 35 years, p<0.05), had a decreased white blood cell count (median 7.200 vs. 8.415, p<0.05) and an increased percentage of monocytes (55.6% vs. 27.4%, p<0.05) compared to the H1N1(-) patients. The clinical presentation at the emergency department, as well as the hospital admission and disease complication rate, were not significantly different between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical characteristics of the new influenza virus appear to be mild and to resemble those of common influenza-like illnesses (ILI). The patients who tested positive for the H1N1 virus were younger and had an increased percentage of monocytes compared to the H1N1-negative patients.