INFORMATION:
About this study
This study was designed and conceived by Mayo Clinic investigators, and the work was made possible in part by a philanthropic gift from the Lerer Family Charitable Foundation Inc., and by the voluntary support from participating physicians and hospitals around the world who contributed in an effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Technical support was donated by GE Healthcare, Philips and Epiphany Healthcare for the transfer of EKG data.
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news. For information on COVID-19, including Mayo Clinic's Coronavirus Map tracking tool, which has 14-day forecasting on COVID-19 trends, visit the Mayo Clinic COVID-19 Resource Center.
Rapid exclusion of COVID-19 infection using AI, EKG technology
2021-06-15
(Press-News.org) ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Artificial intelligence (AI) may offer a way to accurately determine that a person is not infected with COVID-19. An international retrospective study finds that infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, creates subtle electrical changes in the heart. An AI-enhanced EKG can detect these changes and potentially be used as a rapid, reliable COVID-19 screening test to rule out COVID-19 infection.
The AI-enhanced EKG was able to detect COVID-19 infection in the test with a positive predictive value -- people infected -- of 37% and a negative predictive value -- people not infected -- of 91%. When additional normal control subjects were added to reflect a 5% prevalence of COVID-19 -- similar to a real-world population -- the negative predictive value jumped to 99.2%. The findings are published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
COVID-19 has a 10- to 14-day incubation period, which is long compared to other common viruses. Many people do not show symptoms of infection, and they could unknowingly put others at risk. Also, the turnaround time and clinical resources needed for current testing methods are substantial, and access can be a problem.
"If validated prospectively using smartphone electrodes, this will make it even simpler to diagnose COVID infection, highlighting what might be done with international collaborations," says Paul Friedman, M.D., chair of Mayo Clinic's Department of Cardiovascular Medicine in Rochester. Dr. Friedman is senior author of the study.
The realization of a global health crisis brought together stakeholders around the world to develop a tool that could address the need to rapidly, noninvasively and cost-effectively rule out the presence of acute COVID-19 infection. The study, which included data from racially diverse populations, was conducted through a global volunteer consortium spanning four continents and 14 countries.
"The lessons from this global working group showed what is feasible, and the need pushed members in industry and academia to partner in solving the complex questions of how to gather and transfer data from multiple centers with their own EKG systems, electronic health records and variable access to their own data," says Suraj Kapa, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiologist at Mayo Clinic. "The relationships and data processing frameworks refined through this collaboration can support the development and validation of new algorithms in the future."
The researchers selected patients with EKG data from around the time their COVID-19 diagnosis was confirmed by a genetic test for the SARS-Co-V-2 virus. These data were control-matched with similar EKG data from patients who were not infected with COVID-19.
Researchers used more than 26,000 of the EKGs to train the AI and nearly 4,000 others to validate its readings. Finally, the AI was tested on 7,870 EKGs not previously used. In each of these sets, the prevalence of COVID-19 was around 33%.
To accurately reflect a real-world population, more than 50,000 additional normal EKGs were then added to reach a 5% prevalence rate of COVID-19. This raised the negative predictive value of the AI from 91% to 99.2%.
Zachi Attia, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic engineer in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, explains that prevalence is a variable in the calculation of positive and negative predictive values. Specifically, as the prevalence decreases, the negative predictive value increases. Dr. Attia is co-first author of the study with Dr. Kapa.
"Accuracy is one of the biggest hurdles in determining the value of any test for COVID-19," says Dr. Attia. "Not only do we need to know the sensitivity and specificity of the test, but also the prevalence of the disease. Adding the extra control EKG data was critical to demonstrating how a variable prevalence of the disease -- as we have encountered with regions having widely different rates of disease at different stages of the pandemic -- would impact how the test would perform."
"This study demonstrates the presence of a biological signal in the EKG consistent with COVID-19 infection, but it included many ill patients. While it is a hopeful signal, we must prospectively test this in asymptomatic people using smartphone-based electrodes to confirm that it can be practically used in the fight against the pandemic," notes Dr. Friedman. "Studies are underway now to address that question."
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Compounds derived from hops show promise as treatment for common liver disease
2021-06-15
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Research by Oregon State University suggests a pair of compounds originating from hops can help thwart a dangerous buildup of fat in the liver known as hepatic steatosis.
The findings, published today in eLife, are important because the condition affects roughly one-fourth of people in the United States and Europe. While heavy drinking is often associated with liver problems, people with little or no history of alcohol use comprise that 25%, which is why their illness is known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD.
Resistance to insulin, the hormone that helps control blood sugar levels, is a risk factor for NAFLD, ...
Those breakfast foods are fortified for a reason
2021-06-15
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Adults who skip breakfast are likely to miss out on key nutrients that are most abundant in the foods that make up morning meals, a new study suggests.
An analysis of data on more than 30,000 American adults showed that skipping breakfast - and missing out on the calcium in milk, vitamin C in fruit, and the fiber, vitamins and minerals found in fortified cereals - likely left adults low on those nutrients for the entire day.
"What we're seeing is that if you don't eat the foods that are commonly consumed at breakfast, you have a tendency not to eat them the rest of the day. So those common breakfast nutrients become a nutritional gap," said Christopher Taylor, professor of medical dietetics in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State ...
Microscopic CCTV reveals secrets of malaria invasion
2021-06-15
State-of-the-art video microscopy has enabled researchers at WEHI, Australia, to see the molecular details of how malaria parasites invade red blood cells - a key step in the disease.
The researchers used a custom-built lattice light sheet microscope - the first in Australia - to capture high-resolution videos of individual parasites invading red blood cells, and visualise the molecular and cellular changes that occur throughout this process. The research has provided critical new information about malaria parasite biology that may have applications for the development of much-needed new antimalarial medicines.
The research, which was published today in Nature Communications, was led by Ms Cindy Evelyn, Dr Niall Geoghegan, Dr Lachlan Whitehead, ...
Unlabeled PFAS chemicals detected in makeup
2021-06-15
Makeup wearers may be absorbing and ingesting potentially toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), according to a new study published today in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. The researchers found high fluorine levels--indicating the probable presence of PFAS--in most waterproof mascara, liquid lipsticks, and foundations tested. Some of the products with the highest fluorine levels underwent further analysis and were all confirmed to contain at least four PFAS of concern. The majority of products with high fluorine, including those ...
Use of PFAS in cosmetics 'widespread,' new study finds
2021-06-15
Many cosmetics sold in the United States and Canada likely contain high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a potentially toxic class of chemicals linked to a number of serious health conditions, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame.
Scientists tested more than 200 cosmetics including concealers, foundations, eye and eyebrow products and various lip products. According to the study, 56 percent of foundations and eye products, 48 percent of lip products and 47 percent of mascaras tested were found to contain high levels of fluorine, which is an indicator of PFAS use in ...
Malicious content exploits pathways between platforms to thrive online, subvert moderation
2021-06-15
WASHINGTON (June 15, 2021)--Malicious COVID-19 online content -- including racist content, disinformation and misinformation -- thrives and spreads online by bypassing the moderation efforts of individual social media platforms, according to new research published in the journal END ...
Snails carrying the world's smallest computer help solve mass extinction survivor mystery
2021-06-15
More than 50 species of tree snail in the South Pacific Society Islands were wiped out following the introduction of an alien predatory snail in the 1970s, but the white-shelled Partula hyalina survived.
Now, thanks to a collaboration between University of Michigan biologists and engineers with the world's smallest computer, scientists understand why: P. hyalina can tolerate more sunlight than its predator, so it was able to persist in sunlit forest edge habitats.
"We were able to get data that nobody had been able to obtain," said David Blaauw, the Kensall D. Wise Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. "And ...
Head impacts and abnormal imaging findings in youth football players over consecutive seasons
2021-06-15
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (JUNE 15, 2021). In this longitudinal study, researchers from Wake Forest School of Medicine and the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, examined the frequency and severity of head impacts experienced by youth football players and how exposure to head impacts changes from one year to the next in returning players. The researchers then compared the resulting data with findings on neuroimaging studies obtained over consecutive years in the same athletes. The comparison demonstrated a significant positive association between changes in head impact exposure (HIE) metrics and changes in abnormal findings on brain imaging studies. ...
New treatment stops progression of Alzheimer's disease in monkey brains
2021-06-15
A new therapy prompts immune defense cells to swallow misshapen proteins, amyloid beta plaques and tau tangles, whose buildup is known to kill nearby brain cells as part of Alzheimer's disease, a new study shows.
Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the investigation showed that elderly monkeys had up to 59 percent fewer plaque deposits in their brains after treatment with CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG ODN), compared with untreated animals. These amyloid beta plaques are protein fragments that clump together and clog the junctions between nerve cells (neurons).
Brains of treated animals also had a ...
Young adults' alcohol use increases when casually dating
2021-06-15
When young adults are more interested in socializing and casually dating, they tend to drink more alcohol, according to a new paper led by a Washington State University professor.
On the other hand, scientists found that when young adults are in serious relationships, are not interested in dating or place less importance on friendship, their alcohol use was significantly lower.
Published June 15 in the journal Substance Use & Misuse, the study included more than 700 people in the Seattle area aged 18-25 who filled out surveys every month for two years. The study used a community sample that was not limited to college students.
"Young adults shift so much in terms of social relationships ...