Computer programs in biomedicine最新文献

Two programs have been written which permit analysis of multiple continuous-rate enzyme-cascade assays conducted with the use of an ELISA spectrophotometer and a synthetic chromogenic substrate. Because the product of the first reaction functions as the enzyme in the second reaction, production of chromophore continuously accelerates and it is the rate of acceleration which serves to measure the rate of the initial reaction in the system. The first program determines the rate of acceleration using linear regression to analyze the reaction curves as a function of the square of time. The second program, using a Simplex algorithm, determines the parameters which establish the assay standard curve by fitting the rate data to the Hill equation. Used together, these programs facilitate the analysis of many kinetic experiments conducted simultaneously.

A FORTRAN program is provided for testing linear trend and homogeneity in proportions. Trend is evaluated by the Cochran-Armitage method and homogeneity is tested by an overall χ² test as well as by multiple pairwise comparisons by the Fisher-Irwin exact method. The program should be easy to implement on any size of computer with a FORTRAN compiler.

A computer system is presented which provides off-line computation of cycle-triggered histograms (CTH) of respiration-related neuronal activity. Binwidths of the histograms are freely selectable by software from 10 ms to 100 ms. For special evaluation purposes. CTHs can be standardized in different ways concerning cycle duration as well as amplitude. Time incidence of maximum frequency, center of gravity and expiration-to-inspiration phase transition within the respiratory cycle are computed. The system employs special hardware interfaces to an 8-bit microcomputer which are briefly described. Data acquisition, data manipulation and output handling of the results are performed by chaining 3 compiled BASIC programs. Some comments on peculiarities of the BASIC language concerning combined application of a BASIC interpreter and a BASIC compiler are brought up. The usefulness of the method is demonstrated by examples of CTHs computed from the activity of medullary respiration-related neurons as well as of the corresponding phrenic nerve mass activity.

The Kappa statistic is used to measure the interobserver similarity based on categorical scales. The cases of two or more observers with two or more rating categories are considered. Allowance is made for the attachment of disagreement weights, based on rational or clinical grounds, to different rating categories. Tests of hypotheses about the conditions Kappa = 0 and Kappa > 0 are conducted.

A pharmacokinetic program that allows individualization of drug dosage regimens through the Bayesian method is described. The program, which is designed for the Hewlett-Packard HP-41 CV calculator, is based upon the one-compartment open model with either instantaneous or zero-order absorption. Individualized estimation of the patient's kinetic parameters (clearance and volume of distribution) is performed by analyzing the plasma levels measured in the patient as well as considering the population data of the drug. After estimating the individual kinetic parameters by the Bayesian method, the program predicts the dosage regimen that will elicit the desired peak and trough plasma levels at steady state. For comparison purposes, the least-squares estimates for clearance and volume of distribution are calculated, and dosage prediction can also be made on the basis of the least-squares estimates. The least-squares estimates can be used to calculate population pharmacokinetic parameters according to the Standard Two-Stage method.

Several examples of clinical use of the program are presented. The examples refer to patients with classic hemophilia who were treated with Factor VIII concentrates. In these patients, the Bayesian kinetic parameters of Factor VIII have been estimated through the calculator program. The Bayesian parameter estimates generated by the HP-41 have been compared with those determined by a Bayesian program (ADVISE) designed for microcomputers.

A computer program package has been constructed for use in patient survival analyses for chronic diseases based on aggregated data. The central concept of the analyses — the relative survival rate — is the ratio of the observed survival rate of the patients to the survival rate expected in a group in the general population similar to the group of patients at the beginning of the follow-up (interval), with respect to age, sex and calendar time. This quantity is used to measure patient survival adjusted for the effect of mortality attributable to the competing risks of death without employing information on causes of death of individual patients. The package contains three alternative methods of estimating the relative survival rates, two different ways of estimating the expectation of life for the patients, and five methods of testing the relative survival pattern using information on the whole follow-up period. Conventional survival and competing risk analysis can also be performed with the package. It is hoped that the package will facilitate standardization of statistical methodology and terminology in long-term survival studies for chronic diseases.

The program described analyses DNA histograms obtained in flow cytometry using the Gaussians method. The program is written in BASIC to run on a low-cost microcomputer. It utilizes a simple strategy to obtain good estimates of the parameters required for reducing the problem to a task solvable with linear least-squares methods.

Features of the program are flexibility, since it is possible to choose different options for parametrization and spacing of Gaussians, and the fact that the operator is not required to provide interactive inspection or inputting parameter values.

The capability and velocity of the program, in all its options, are tested and compared on a series of different (not computer-simulated) histograms obtained in our flow cytometry laboratory. Our results suggest that a fresh approach to parametrization may be useful.

An attempt was made to simulate in a mathematical model one of the two major effects of glucose upon ⁴⁵Ca fractional outflow rate from prelabelled pancreatic islets, namely the increase in effluent radioactivity which is currently ascribed to the displacement of ⁴⁵Ca from intracellular sites, as resulting from a facilitated influx of unlabelled ⁴⁰Ca into the islet cells. The occurrence of such a rise in effluent radioactivity and its suppression in the absence of extracellular Ca²⁺ could only be simulated if the release of Ca by the vacuolar system was assumed to be stimulated by a rise in the cytosolic Ca concentration. It is proposed therefore that, in islets like in muscle, a process of Ca-stimulated Ca release may participate in the regulation of intracellular Ca distribution.