Manuel Cossio

With the rapid development of COVID-19 into a global pandemic, there is an ever more urgent need for cheap, fast and reliable tools that can assist physicians in diagnosing COVID-19. Medical imaging such as CT can take a key role in complementing conventional diagnostic tools from molecular biology, and, using deep learning techniques, several automatic systems were demonstrated promising performances using CT or X-ray data. Here, we advocate a more prominent role of point-of-care ultrasound… Mehr anzeigen

With the rapid development of COVID-19 into a global pandemic, there is an ever more urgent need for cheap, fast and reliable tools that can assist physicians in diagnosing COVID-19. Medical imaging such as CT can take a key role in complementing conventional diagnostic tools from molecular biology, and, using deep learning techniques, several automatic systems were demonstrated promising performances using CT or X-ray data. Here, we advocate a more prominent role of point-of-care ultrasound imaging to guide COVID-19 detection. Ultrasound is non-invasive and ubiquitous in medical facilities around the globe. Our contribution is threefold. First, we gather a lung ultrasound (POCUS) dataset consisting of (currently) 1103 images (654 COVID-19, 277 bacterial pneumonia and 172 healthy controls), sampled from 64 videos. While this dataset was assembled from various online sources and is by no means exhaustive, it was processed specifically to feed deep learning models and is intended to serve as a starting point for an open-access initiative. Second, we train a deep convolutional neural network (POCOVID-Net) on this 3-class dataset and achieve an accuracy of 89% and, by a majority vote, a video accuracy of 92% . For detecting COVID-19 in particular, the model performs with a sensitivity of 0.96, a specificity of 0.79 and F1-score of 0.92 in a 5-fold cross validation. Third, we provide an open-access web service (POCOVIDScreen) that is available at: https: //pocovidscreen.org. The website deploys the predictive model, allowing to perform predictions on ultrasound lung images. In addition, it grants medical staff the option to (bulk) upload their own screenings in order to contribute to the growing public database of pathological lung ultrasound images. Weniger anzeigen

Aromatase (Aro) is the key enzyme for estrogen biosynthesis from androgens and is encoded by CYP19A1 gene. In human placenta (Pl), Aro is expressed exclusively in the syncytiotrophoblast.
Several studies have described that abnormal fetal development were related to altered intrauterine environment and particularly placenta deregulation. It has been reported that small newborns as well as large newborns tend to develop prevalence for metabolic syndrome in adult life. Moreover, patients with… Mehr anzeigen

Aromatase (Aro) is the key enzyme for estrogen biosynthesis from androgens and is encoded by CYP19A1 gene. In human placenta (Pl), Aro is expressed exclusively in the syncytiotrophoblast.
Several studies have described that abnormal fetal development were related to altered intrauterine environment and particularly placenta deregulation. It has been reported that small newborns as well as large newborns tend to develop prevalence for metabolic syndrome in adult life. Moreover, patients with Aro deficiency develop lipid and carbohydrate metabolic alterations in adulthood. Our group has previously described in Pl a splicing variant of Aro mRNA (Intron9) that would be translated into inactive Aro protein.

The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of Aro mRNA variants in Pl from preterm (PT) (<35 weeks) and term LGA compared to term AGA newborns. We proposed that the expression of Aro mRNA variants might be involved in the regulation of Aro activity and hence estrogen-androgen balance in intrauterine environment associated with fetal development.

Analysis of each transcript variant related to total Aro showed that ActAro/TotAro and IN9/TotAro were significantly higher in PT (1.33 ± 0.26 and 0.14 ± 0.01) and in LGA (1.22 ± 0.20 and 0.17 ± 0.02) compared to AGA (0.33 ± 0.07 and 0.07 ± 0.01), p<0.05.

The high Aro mRNA expression, particularly Active Aro, in preterm placentas agrees with previous reports of increments in maternal salivary estriol and plasma estradiol in preterm parturition suggesting that Pl Aro plays a role modulating Pl estrogen production associated to prematurity. Not only in PT but also in LGA higher Active Aro related to Total Aro was observed compare with AGA. These results suggest that Pl Aro mRNA variants might play a role regulating Pl Aro activity and hence androgen-estrogen balance in intrauterine environment. Weniger anzeigen