Cavitas sensors and point-of-need sensors capable of providing physical and biochemical information from the oral cavity and saliva have attracted great attention because they offer remarkable advantages for noninvasive sensing systems. Herein, we introduce the basic anatomy and physiology of important body cavities to understand their characteristics as it is a pivotal foundation for the successful development of in-mouth devices. Next, the advanced development in lab-in-a-mouth sensors and point-of-need sensors for analyzing saliva are explained. In addition, we discuss the integrations of artificial intelligence and electronic technologies in smart sensing networks for healthcare systems. This review ends with a discussion of the challenges, future research trends, and opportunities in relevant disciplines. Mouthguard-based sensors and conventional salivary sensing devices will continue to be significant for the progress in the next-generation sensing technologies and smart healthcare systems.

Background: Reference intervals of any biochemical analyte serve as an invaluable tool in clinical decision making. The IFCC (International Federation of Clinical Chemistry) guidelines for determining these values are not feasible in some hospital laboratory settings and have led to the development of alternative approaches. Aims and Objectives: To determine the indirect reference intervals for serum thyrotropin from the hospital records of individuals visiting a tertiary care center. Materials and Methods: In a hospital-record based, observational, cross-sectional study, data of serum TSH levels were collected from the hospital records of participants who underwent this test in the Central Clinical Laboratory, College of Medical Sciences and Teaching Hospital, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal from July 2012 to June 2015. All the individuals, irrespective of their diagnoses of thyroid diseases and other possible comorbid conditions, were included in the study. Prior to the statistical analyses, partitioning was done in relation to gender, age, and ethnicity. The reference intervals for thyrotropin were established by non-parametric method. Results: Reference intervals for serum TSH best agreeing to those provided by the test kit suppliers were determined by combining the two strategies that used Tukey's method of detection and removal of outliers, prior to the final analyses. Lower limit was best determined from the natural-log-transformed and upper limit from non-transformed TSH values with outliers removed by Tukey's method in both. As such, for the cases with TSH in the range 0.02-98.8 mIU/L, the reference intervals were calculated as [0.31 (0.30-0.33) to 6.04 (5.97-6.12

No abstract

Background Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the major cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in developing countries. Early diagnosis with the best diagnostic marker is highly desired for the prevention and timely treatment of CVDs. However, there is still a dearth of an ideal marker for the detection of CVDs. Objective To explore the diagnostic potential of liver aminotransferases (AST and ALT), and alkaline phosphatase for the diagnosis of CVDs without liver involvement. Method This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 200 adult patients with CVDs, who visited the cardiology and emergency units of Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal. The study was conducted from January 2018 to December 2020. The baseline data on family history, anthropometry, baseline biochemical parameters, liver enzymes, and cardiac biomarkers were collected using standard and validated methods. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 and MedCalc software 2021. Result The diagnostic sensitivity of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase were 53.7%, 52.6%, and 33.7% and specificity were 99%, 90%, and 90% respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) of AST, ALT, and ALP were 0.78, 0.73, and 0.52 respectively. ROC curve indicated that serum AST and ALT activity was a better reliable marker than the serum ALP activities. Conclusion Our study suggests that serum aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase but not alkaline phosphatase could have some diagnostic potential to diagnose the risk of CVDs. However, they could not replace the currently adopted cardiac biomarkers such as cTnI and CK-MB.