Lung function testing has evolved over the years from a tool purely used for research and is now a commonly utilised form of clinical investigation. This new book is clear, concise and easy to read, providing both the essential scientific information as well as focusing on the practical aspects of lung function testing. The book is designed so that different chapters can be read as stand-alone sections, but cross-referencing to the other chapters completes the picture for the interested reader. The book begins with an outline of lung structure and anatomy, and then proceeds to basic functional considerations before discussing the tests themselves. Particular attention is given to spirometry and lung volume measurements. The text covers the functional assessment of exercise capacity, respiratory muscle strength and concludes with preoperative evaluation and recommendations. The text emphasises practical problems, including controversies associated with lung function testing. Boxes emphasise important topics throughout the text. Highlighted questions can be used for short tutorials or problem-based learning

Technological developments in the life sciences confront us with new facets of a Faustian seduction. Are we "playing God" more and more, as claimed by critical authors of modernity? Achievements in genetic research produce ethical dilemmas which need to be the subject of reflection and debate in modern societies. Denial of ambivalences that ethical dilemmas arouse constitutes a threat to societies as well as to individuals. The book presents a compilation of some of the results of the interdisciplinary European study "Ethical Dilemmas Due to Prenatal and Genetic Diagnostics" (EDIG), which investigated some of these dilemmas in detail in a field which is particularly challenging: prenatal diagnosis. When results from prenatal diagnosis show fetal abnormalities, women and their partners are confronted with ethical dilemmas regarding: the right to know and the right not to know; decision-making about the remainder of the pregnancy and the desire for a healthy child; responsibility for the unborn child, for its well-being and possible suffering; life and death. This book provides answers from an ethical, psychoanalytical and medical viewpoint.

Based on the highly successful first edition of Prostate Biopsy: Indications, Techniques, and Complications, this new volume presents new concepts that have emerged in answer to current questions from its audience. Many new perspectives and technologies are presented, many from the authors' internationally recognized work on the topic. Substantial developments in techniques and complications are explored in detail. The chapter authors comprise a complete spectrum of specialists in their respective subject areas. All authors are internationally accepted as the premier authorities on their chosen topics. Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: PSA, Biopsy, and Beyond presents new data on the controversial issue of PSA screening and thresholds as indication to perform biopsy. Office based transrectal saturation biopsy is covered in detail. Other topics explored include template guided biopsy and image-guided biopsy as well as a completely new paradigm for prevention of complications. Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: PSA, Biopsy, and Beyond will be of great value and utility to all practicing urologists.

The book presents a knowledge discovery based approach to build a recommender system supporting a physician in treating tinnitus patients with the highly successful method called Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. It describes experiments on extracting novel knowledge from the historical dataset of patients treated by Dr. P. Jastreboff so that to better understand factors behind therapy's effectiveness and better personalize treatments for different profiles of patients. The book is a response for a growing demand of an advanced data analytics in the healthcare industry in order to provide better care with the data driven decision-making solutions. The potential economic benefits of applying computerized clinical decision support systems include not only improved efficiency in health care delivery (by reducing costs, improving quality of care and patient safety), but also enhancement in treatment's standardization, objectivity and availability in places of scarce expert's knowledge on this difficult to treat hearing disorder. Furthermore, described approach could be used in assessment of the clinical effectiveness of evidence-based intervention of various proposed treatments for tinnitus.

Dr. Michael Traynor guest edits this issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics devoted to Advances in Hysteroscopy and Laparoscopy. Review articles, ?written by experts in the field, cover topics such as laparoscopic hysterectomy, electrosurgical devices, laparoscopic suturing techniques, hysteroscopic procedures in the management of common gynecologic disorders, and managing and minimizing the risks of complications

The interpretation of skin lesions in children that may be due to abuse is often not straightforward, and many reports have been published on dermatological disorders and accidental injuries that were unjustly regarded as signs of child abuse. This book describes in detail the cutaneous manifestations of the physical abuse of children and devotes particular attention to differential diagnosis. Careful guidance is provided on the optimal evaluation of children presenting with findings potentially attributable to abuse. The numerous images and detailed background information will develop the ability of the reader to assess and interpret the clinical signs of abuse, and to distinguish these signs from other causes of injury, such as accidents and self-mutilation, and dermatological disorders. "Cutaneous Manifestations of Child Abuse" will be invaluable for pediatric dermatologists, pediatricians, forensic experts, and others who deal with the physical abuse of children.

This book examines in depth the evidence, clinical applications and potential cancer signatures in the circulation and discusses alterations in circulating cell-free nucleic acids, and circulating tumor DNA, as well as the epigenome, genome, transcriptome (coding and noncoding), proteome (both traditional serum proteins and proteomic profiles) and metabolome. Further, it highlights the clinical applications of circulating tumor cells for each cancer type and addresses the emerging importance of extracellular vesicular contents, including miRNA, oncogenes and drug resistant factors. As such, it offers a valuable reference guide for cancer researchers, oncologists, clinicians, surgeons, medical students, oncology nurses, diagnostic laboratories, and the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Waxman has assembled global experts to provide comprehensive coverage of Barrett's Esophagus, including diagnosis, management, treatment, and beyond. Articles are devoted to photodynamic therapy, minimally invasive surgery, advanced imaging, endoscopic mucosal resection, cryotherapy, and radiofrequency ablation. The clinical information in these articles will give readers a true picture of the advances in this disease state as well as what the clinical picture will look like in the near future.

Volume 47 in the internationally acclaimed "Advances in Clinical Chemistry" contains chapters submitted from leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science. Authors are from a diverse field of clinical chemistry disciplines and diagnostics, ranging from basic biochemical exploration to cutting-edge microarray technology.
Leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science Volume emphasizes novel laboratory advances with application to clinical laboratory diagnostics and practical basic science studies

Contrary to conventional clinical skill textbooks written in a routine, system based approach, "Clinical Examination: A Problem Based Approach" breaks that mould by presenting clinical cases in a problem solving manner. The book is composed of in-depth dissections of case scenarios and their appropriate investigations. Written by experts from Australia, New Zealand, US and the UK, this book brings an international perspective to a wide variety of specialties including, gastroenterology, neurology, rheumatology, respiratory and the cardiovascular system. Another unique feature of the book is the chapters on examining the older patient, the joints and the vascular system. This publication is a must-have for all medical undergraduates and postgraduates.The author is a distinguished clinician and educator. He is the recipient of the Order of Australia (AM) 2009 for "service to medicine and to medical education through the development of undergraduate and professional development programs".

Volume 47 in the internationally acclaimed "Advances in Clinical Chemistry" contains chapters submitted from leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science. Authors are from a diverse field of clinical chemistry disciplines and diagnostics, ranging from basic biochemical exploration to cutting-edge microarray technology.
Leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science Volume emphasizes novel laboratory advances with application to clinical laboratory diagnostics and practical basic science studies

Volume 54 in the internationally acclaimed "Advances in Clinical Chemistry" contains chapters submitted from leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science. Authors are from a diverse field of clinical chemistry disciplines and diagnostics, ranging from basic biochemical exploration to cutting-edge microarray technology.

Leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science
Volume emphasizes novel laboratory advances with application to clinical laboratory diagnostics and practical basic science studies

This book explores how PPPM, clinical practice, and basic research could be best served by information technology (IT). A use-case was developed for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The subject was approached with four interrelated tasks: (1) review of clinical practices relating to HCC; (2) propose an IT system relating to HCC, including clinical decision support and research needs; (3) determine how a clinical liver cancer center can contribute; and, (4) examine the enhancements and impact that the first three tasks will have on the management of HCC. An IT System for Personalized Medicine (ITS-PM) for HCC will provide the means to identify and determine the relative value of the wide number of variables, including clinical assessment of the patient -- functional status, liver function, degree of cirrhosis, and comorbidities; tumor biology, at a molecular, genetic and anatomic level; tumor burden and individual patient response; medical and operative treatments and their outcomes.

"Kroll-Smith and Floyd have, with both clarity and sensitivity, provided considerable insight into an important arena of contemporary experience."
--"American Journal of Sociology"

"Elegantly written. . . . the book is built around the narratives of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) sufferers themselves. . . . Due to its relevant subject matter, its interdisciplinary approach, its readability, and its interesting theoretical arguments, "Bodies in Protest" should be appealing to a wide audience."
--"Organization and Environment"

"This engagingly written and thought-provoking book provides one of the first sustained sociological analyses of a baffling, controversial, and spectacular medical condition."
--"Social Forces"

Gulf War Syndrome: Is It a Real Disease? asks a recent headline in the "New York Times," This question--are certain diseases real?--lies at the heart of a simmering controversy in the United States, a debate that has raged, in different contexts, for centuries. In the early nineteenth century, the air of European cities, polluted by open sewers and industrial waste, was generally thought to be the source of infection and disease. Thus the term miasma--literally deathlike air--came into popular use, only to be later dismissed as medically unsound by Louis Pasteur.

While controversy has long swirled in the United States around such illnesses as chronic fatigue syndrome and Epstein-Barr virus, no disorder has been more aggressively contested than environmental illness, a disease whose symptoms are distinguished by an extreme, debilitating reaction to a seemingly ordinary environment. The environmentally ill range from those who have adverse reactionsto strong perfumes or colognes to others who are so sensitive to chemicals of any kind that they must retreat entirely from the modern world.

"Bodies in Protest" does not seek to answer the question of whether or not chemical sensitivity is physiological or psychological, rather, it reveals how ordinary people borrow the expert language of medicine to construct lay accounts of their misery. The environmentally ill are not only explaining their bodies to themselves, however, they are also influencing public policies and laws to accommodate the existence of these mysterious illnesses. They have created literally a new body that professional medicine refuses to acknowledge and one that is becoming a popular model for rethinking conventional boundaries between the safe and the dangerous.

Having interviewed dozens of the environmentally ill, the authors here recount how these people come to acknowledge and define their disease, and themselves, in a suddenly unlivable world that often stigmatizes them as psychologically unstable. "Bodies in Protest" is the dramatic story of human bodies that no longer behave in a manner modern medicine can predict and control.

Volume 49 in the internationally acclaimed "Advances in Clinical Chemistry" contains chapters submitted from leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science. Authors are from a diverse field of clinical chemistry disciplines and diagnostics ranging from basic biochemical exploration to cutting-edge microarray technology.

* Leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science * Volume emphasizes novel laboratory advances with application to clinical laboratory diagnostics and practical basic science studies

Technology is playing an increasing role in the lives of the elderly. One of the most prevalent developments for the aging population is the use of technological innovations for intervention and treatment of individuals with mental impairments. The Handbook of Research on Innovations in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia offers empirical research and theoretical analyses on the cognitive impairment of the aging. Featuring studies in gerotechnology, this book is an essential resource for researchers, students, and practitioners in the field of geriatrics who are interested in the emerging research, clinical practices, therapy, and technological innovations concerning the development and treatment of dementia.

A detailed description of up-to-date methods used for computer processing and interpretation of medical images is given. The scope of the book include images acquisition, storing with compression, processing, analysis, recognition and also its automatic understanding In introduction general overview of the computer vision methods designed for medical images is presented. Next sources of medical images are presented with their general characteristics. Both traditional (like X-ray) and very modern (like PET) sources of medical images are presented. The main emphasis is placed on such properties of medical images given by particular medical imaging methods which are important form the point of view of its computer processing, analysis and recognition. The consecutive parts of the book describe compression and processing methods, including many methods developed by authors especially for medical images. After parts describing analysis and recognition of medical images come most important part, in which the new method of automatic understanding of medical images is given. This new method of image interpretation, described in previous works of the same authors with applications for simple 2D images now is generalized for 3D images and for complex medical images with many objects observed and with complicated relations between these objects.

In a unique way, the laboratory professionalist's knowledge about the molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases is connected with the clinician's practical experience. The increasing prevalence of infectious diseases makes correct diagnosis, ordering the right tests, quality control and correct interpretation of the results even more important. The possible pathogens are discussed in the second part according to the specific symptoms or to where the infection is located in the body.

Features:

* For clinicians and laboratory professionalists

* Up-to-date diagnostics of all infectious diseases

* Molecular diagnostics, diseases, choice of methods

* Specific pathogens in alphabetic order

* Tables and flow charts

There are more than 80 different sleep disorders including insomnia, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, hypersomnia, circadian rhythm disorders, and parasomnia. Good sleep is necessary for optimal health and can affect hormone levels and weight. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and biomedical signals and images can help in healthcare diagnostics that are related to these and other sleep disorders. Advancing the Investigation and Treatment of Sleep Disorders Using AI presents an overview of sleep disorders based on machine intelligence methods in order to learn and explore the latest advancements, developments, methods, systems, futuristic approaches, and algorithms towards sleep disorders and to address their challenges. This book also discusses recent and future advancements in various feature extraction techniques and machine learning methods. Covering topics such as biomedical signal processing, augmented reality for clinical investigation, and sleep disorder detection, this book is essential for sleep medicine practitioners, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, medical technologists, doctors, IT specialists, biomedical engineers, researchers, graduate students, and academicians.

This book introduces readers to the concept of 'frugal innovation' and describes novel low-cost technologies that aid in diagnosing infectious diseases. Rapidly deployable, portable, and affordable diagnostic tools have the potential to tremendously benefit populations in resource-limited settings and improve global health outcomes. Specifically, the book includes the following features: Cutting-Edge Research: Thorough coverage of scientific advances related to frugal bioengineering that have been developed within the last few years. A few examples of technologies covered in detail include low-cost paper-based and CD-based microfluidic diagnostic systems. Industry and Non-Profit Voices: Chapters written by scientists currently working in industry and philanthropic sectors.

This fourth edition volume expands on the previous editions by presenting readers with new and emerging methodologies in cytometry. The chapters in this book cover various topics such as quantifying surface and intracellular protein biomarkers, intracellular cytokine staining, apoptosis analysis, cell cycle analysis, tracking cell proliferation, and monitoring protein-protein interactions using FRET. Some developing methodologies that explored are mass cytometry, vesicle flow cytometry, time-resolved flow cytometry, and real-time label-free deformability cytometry. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and comprehensive, Flow Cytometry Protocols, Fourth Edition researchers and scientists who are interested in continuing or expanding their knowledge of flow cytometry.

Volume forty-two in the internationally acclaimed Advances in Clinical Chemistry series, contains chapters submitted from leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science. Authors are from a diverse field of clinical chemistry disciplines and diagnostics ranging from basic biochemical exploration to cutting edge microarray technology. In keeping with the tradition of the series, this volume emphasizes novel laboratory advances with application not only to both clinical laboratory diagnostics, but as well as practical basic science studies.
This volume of Advances in Clinical Chemistry is an indispensable resource and practical guide for twenty-first century practitioners of clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, pathology, and clinical laboratory sciences in general.