Cited by 203Open Access
University of Helsinki
Publishes on Lung Cancer Treatments and Mutations, Immunotherapy and Immune Responses, Chemokine receptors and signaling. 9 papers and 376 citations.
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The purpose of the present study was to establish a rapid and reproducible method for quantification of tissue-infiltrating leukocytes using computerized image analysis. To achieve this, the staining procedure, the image acquisition, and the image analysis method were optimized. Because of the adaptive features of the human eye, computerized image analysis is more sensitive to variations in staining compared with manual image analysis. To minimize variations in staining, an automated immunostainer was used. With a digital scanner camera, low-magnification images could be sampled at high resolution, thus making it possible to analyze larger tissue sections. Image analysis was performed by color thresholding of the digital images based on values of hue, saturation, and intensity color mode, which we consider superior to the red, green, and blue color mode for analysis of most histological stains. To evaluate the method, we compared computerized analysis of images with a x100 or a x12.5 magnification to assess leukocytes infiltrating rat brain tumors after peripheral immunizations with tumor cells genetically modified to express rat interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) or medium controls. The results generated by both methods correlated well and did not show any significant differences. The method allows efficient and reproducible processing of large tissue sections that is less time-consuming than conventional methods and can be performed with standard equipment and software.(J Histochem Cytochem 49:1073-1079, 2001)
BACKGROUND: Reliable assessment of nursing workload is necessary for the quantitative approach to staffing of intensive care units. The Nursing Care Recording System (NCR11) scores both the nursing contribution to patient care and those related to medical procedures. The purpose of the present work was to compare NCR11 scoring with the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS) and Nine Equivalents of Nurse Manpower use Score (NEMS) and to examine the interrater reliability of NCR11 scoring. METHODS: Bias and precision of workload scores (NCR11 vs. TISS or NEMS) were assessed for 6126 consecutive admissions (23910 ICU-days) at three intensive care units. Inter-rater reliability was analyzed by having nurses at nine ICUs score workload using NCR11 for three dummy intensive care patient cases presented over a 3-year period. Variability in scoring was analyzed using the coefficient of variation. RESULTS: Agreement between NCR11 and TISS or NEMS was poor and limits of agreement were wide. Linear relationships between NCR11 and TISS or NEMS scores differed between units. Variability in NCR11 scoring decreased significantly from 10.4% to 5.9% between dummy cases 1 and 2 and remained low for patient case 3. CONCLUSION: The NCR11 does not measure the same elements of workload in the ICU as do TISS and NEMS. Inter-rater reliability with NCR11 is good, showing little variation in scoring between nurses.