International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology convened an expert Working Group that assembled consistency/inconsistency flags for the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP). One hundred and forty seven flags were identified, 16 flag errors in deriving the PSP decile (i.e., total) score from the four individual domain scores, 74 flag inconsistencies between domain scores relative to Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) item ratings and 57 flag inconsistencies between PSP decile score and PANSS items ratings. The flags were applied to assessments from randomized clinical trial data of antipsychotics in schizophrenia from almost 18,000 ratings. Twenty-two flags were raised in at least 5 of 1000 ratings. Nearly 20% of the PSP ratings had at least one inconsistency flag raised. Application of flags to clinical ratings may improve the reliability of ratings and validity of trials.

• Klíčová slova
• Measurement, PANSS, PSP, Personal and Social Performance Scale, Reliability,
• MeSH
• antipsychotika * MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• psychiatrické posuzovací škály MeSH
• reprodukovatelnost výsledků MeSH
• schizofrenie * diagnóza   farmakoterapie   MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• randomizované kontrolované studie MeSH
• Názvy látek
• antipsychotika * MeSH

The aim of this study was to determine the predictive validity of the Braden, Norton, and Waterlow scales in 2 long-term care departments in the Czech Republic. Assessing the risk for developing pressure ulcers is the first step in their prevention. At present, many scales are used in clinical practice, but most of them have not been properly validated yet (for example, the Modified Norton Scale in the Czech Republic). In the Czech Republic, only the Braden Scale has been validated so far. This is a prospective comparative instrument testing study. A random sample of 123 patients was recruited. The predictive validity of the pressure ulcer risk assessment scales was evaluated based on sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. The data were collected from April to August 2014. In the present study, the best predictive validity values were observed for the Norton Scale, followed by the Braden Scale and the Waterlow Scale, in that order. We recommended that the above 3 pressure ulcer risk assessment scales continue to be evaluated in the Czech clinical setting.

• Klíčová slova
• Braden Scale, Norton Scale, Waterlow Scale, nursing, predictive validity, pressure ulcers,
• MeSH
• dekubity diagnóza   etiologie   prevence a kontrola   MeSH
• dlouhodobá péče * MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• hodnocení rizik MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• prediktivní hodnota testů MeSH
• prospektivní studie MeSH
• rizikové faktory MeSH
• ROC křivka MeSH
• senioři nad 80 let MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• výzkumný projekt MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• senioři nad 80 let MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Česká republika MeSH

OBJECTIVE AND BACKGROUND: The 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is a widely-used screening measure for postnatal depression. Factor analysis studies have suggested an embedded sub-scale could be used for screening for anxiety disorders. The current investigation sought to replicate and extend a recent study supporting this assertion. METHODS: A cross-sectional design. EPDS data were collected at up to two years postpartum. Confirmatory factor analysis, correlational and distributional characteristics of the measure were examined. Participants were a large sample (N = 985) of postpartum women in the Czech Republic. RESULTS: Factor structure findings substantially replicated the models evaluated by Della Vedova et al. (2022). Bifactor models, however, offered a better fit to data. A general factor of depression explained most of the variance in data in most models compared to embedded sub-scales across models. CONCLUSION: The model proposed by Della Vedova et al. (2022) offered an excellent fit to data. However, the findings from the bifactor modelling suggest the dominance of a general factor of depression which indicates the potential application of an embedded anxiety sub-scale for screening may be overstated.

• Klíčová slova
• Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), factor structure, psychometrics, screening, validity,
• MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• faktorová analýza statistická MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• poporodní deprese * diagnóza   psychologie   MeSH
• průřezové studie MeSH
• psychiatrické posuzovací škály * normy   MeSH
• psychometrie MeSH
• reprodukovatelnost výsledků MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Česká republika MeSH

BACKGROUND: Mitigating rating inconsistency can improve measurement fidelity and detection of treatment response. METHODS: The International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology convened an expert Working Group that developed consistency checks for ratings of the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) and Clinical Global Impression of Severity of anxiety (CGIS) that are widely used in studies of mood and anxiety disorders. Flags were applied to 40,349 HAM-A administrations from 15 clinical trials and to Monte Carlo-simulated data as a proxy for applying flags under conditions of inconsistency. RESULTS: Thirty-three flags were derived these included logical consistency checks and statistical outlier-response pattern checks. Twenty-percent of the HAM-A administrations had at least one logical scoring inconsistency flag, 4 % had two or more. Twenty-six percent of the administrations had at least one statistical outlier flag and 11 % had two or more. Overall, 35 % of administrations had at least one flag of any type, 19 % had one and 16 % had 2 or more. Most of administrations in the Monte Carlo- simulated data raised multiple flags. LIMITATIONS: Flagged ratings may represent less-common presentations of administrations done correctly. Conclusions-Application of flags to clinical ratings may aid in detecting imprecise measurement. Flags can be used for monitoring of raters during an ongoing trial and as part of post-trial evaluation. Appling flags may improve reliability and validity of trial data.

• Klíčová slova
• Careless ratings, Consistency of measurement, HAM-A, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Inconsistent ratings,
• MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• psychiatrické posuzovací škály MeSH
• psychometrie MeSH
• reprodukovatelnost výsledků MeSH
• úzkost * MeSH
• úzkostné poruchy * diagnóza   farmakoterapie   MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

BACKGROUND: Symptom manifestations in mood disorders can be subtle. Cumulatively, small imprecisions in measurement can limit our ability to measure treatment response accurately. Logical and statistical consistency checks between item responses (i.e., cross-sectionally) and across administrations (i.e., longitudinally) can contribute to improving measurement fidelity. METHODS: The International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology convened an expert Working Group that assembled flags indicating consistency/inconsistency ratings for the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D17), a widely-used rating scale in studies of depression. Proposed flags were applied to assessments derived from the NEWMEDS data repository of 95,468 HAM-D administrations from 32 registration trials of antidepressant medications and to Monte Carlo-simulated data as a proxy for applying flags under conditions of known inconsistency. RESULTS: Two types of flags were derived: logical consistency checks and statistical outlier-response pattern checks. Almost thirty percent of the HAMD administrations had at least one logical scoring inconsistency flag. Seven percent had flags judged to suggest that a thorough review of rating is warranted. Almost 22% of the administrations had at least one statistical outlier flag and 7.9% had more than one. Most of the administrations in the Monte Carlo- simulated data raised multiple flags. LIMITATIONS: Flagged ratings may represent less-common presentations of administrations done correctly. CONCLUSIONS: Application of flags to clinical ratings may aid in detecting imprecise measurement. Reviewing and addressing these flags may improve reliability and validity of clinical trial data.

• Klíčová slova
• Careless ratings, Consistency of measurement, HAM-D17, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, Inconsistent ratings, NEWMEDS,
• MeSH
• antidepresiva * terapeutické užití   MeSH
• deprese * diagnóza   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• poruchy nálady farmakoterapie   MeSH
• psychiatrické posuzovací škály MeSH
• reprodukovatelnost výsledků MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Názvy látek
• antidepresiva * MeSH

BACKGROUND: Mitigating rating inconsistency can improve measurement fidelity and detection of treatment response. METHODS: The International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology convened an expert Working Group that developed logical consistency (LC) checks for ratings of the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), which is widely used in studies of mood and bipolar disorders. LC and statistical outlier-response pattern checks (SC) were applied to 63,228 YMRS administrations from 14 clinical trials evaluating treatments for bipolar disorder. Checks were also applied to Monte Carlo-simulated data as a proxy for their use under conditions of inconsistency. RESULTS: 42 LC flags were developed, and four SC flags were created from the data set (n = 14). Almost 20 % of the rating administrations had at least one LC flag, 6.7 % had two or more, 1.7 % had three or more; 17.3 % percent of the administrations had at least one SC flag and 4.6 % percent had two or more. Overall, 31 % of administrations had at least one flag of any type, 12.1 % had two or more and 5.3 % had three or more. In acute antimanic treatment trials (n = 10) there were more flags of any type compared to relapse prevention trials (n = 4). LIMITATIONS: Flagged ratings may represent less-common presentations assessed correctly. CONCLUSIONS: Using established methods, we illustrate development and application of consistency flags for YMRS ratings. Applying flags and mitigation during trials may improve the value of YMRS data, help focus attention on rater training, and improve reliability and validity of trial data.

• Klíčová slova
• Careless ratings, Consistency of measurement, Inconsistent ratings, YMRS, Young Mania Rating Scale,
• MeSH
• afekt MeSH
• antimanika terapeutické užití   MeSH
• bipolární porucha * diagnóza   farmakoterapie   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mánie * farmakoterapie   MeSH
• psychiatrické posuzovací škály MeSH
• reprodukovatelnost výsledků MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• antimanika MeSH

Some psychometric parameters of the instrument were estimated using a sample of depressed patients and a sample of normal subjects from the Czech population. The findings considerably support the hypothesis that the SDS items belong to the same psychometric family. Most items and the scale as a whole show a remarkable ability to discriminate between normal subjects and those suffering from depressive disorder. The result also rather convincingly indicate the SDS capacity to monitor changes of depressive disorder symptoms during treatment to be rather independent of relatively stable personality traits as measured by the EPQ. It might be concluded that the SDS psychometric parameters qualify the instrument for measurement of milder forms of depressive disorder in the Czech population.

• MeSH
• deprese diagnóza   MeSH
• depresivní poruchy diagnóza   MeSH
• hodnotící studie jako téma MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
• psychiatrické posuzovací škály * MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

Negative symptoms represent an unmet need of treatment in schizophrenia. Although a consensus exists on negative symptom construct, and second generation assessment instruments reflecting the consensus are available, studies still rely upon old assessment instruments, that do not reflect recent conceptualizations and might limit progress in the search for effective treatments. This is often the case in the European context, where one of the challenges encountered in designing large studies is the availability of validated instruments in the many languages of the continent. To address this challenge and promote sound research on negative symptoms in Europe, the ECNP Schizophrenia Network coordinated a large multicenter, multinational validation study of the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS). Clinically-stable subjects with schizophrenia (SCZ, N = 249) were recruited from 10 European Countries. Apart from BNSS, subjects were administered the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and standardized instruments for depression, extrapyramidal symptoms and psychosocial functioning. Results showed an excellent internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity of BNSS and replicated a 5 factor-model. A larger number of subjects with predominant negative symptoms, i.e. the target population for clinical trials, was identified by using the BNSS compared to the PANSS. Regression analysis showed that BNSS-avolition, a key negative symptom poorly assessed by PANSS, explained 23.9% of psychosocial functioning, while no combination of the PANSS core negative symptoms showed the same impact on functioning. The study demonstrated that BNSS has substantial advantages with respect to PANSS for the identification of the avolition domain and subjects with predominant negative symptoms.

• Klíčová slova
• Avolition, BNSS, Functional outcome, Negative symptoms, PANSS-negative subscale,
• MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• psychiatrické posuzovací škály * MeSH
• schizofrenie (psychologie) MeSH
• schizofrenie diagnóza   MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• multicentrická studie MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• validační studie MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH

AIMS: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the reliability of our new visual scale for a quick atrophy assessment of parietal lobes on brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) among different professionals. A good agreement would justify its use for differential diagnosis of neurodegenerative dementias, especially early-onset Alzheimer's Disease (AD), in clinical settings. METHODS: The visual scale named the Parietal Atrophy Score (PAS) is based on a semi-quantitative assessment ranging from 0 (no atrophy) to 2 (prominent atrophy) in three parietal structures (sulcus cingularis posterior, precuneus, parietal gyri) on T1-weighted MRI coronal slices through the whole parietal lobes. We used kappa statistics to evaluate intra-rater and inter-rater agreement among four raters who independently scored parietal atrophy using PAS. Rater 1 was a neuroanatomist (JM), rater 2 was an expert in MRI acquisition and analysis (II), rater 3 was a medical student (OP) and rater 4 was a neurologist (DS) who evaluated parietal atrophy twice in a 3-month interval to assess intra-rater agreement. All raters evaluated the same 50 parietal lobes on brain MRI of 25 cognitively normal individuals with even distribution across all atrophy degrees from none to prominent according to the neurologist's rating. RESULTS: Intra-rater agreement was almost perfect with the kappa value of 0.90. Inter-rater agreement was moderate to substantial with kappa values ranging from 0.43-0.86. CONCLUSION: The Parietal Atrophy Score is the reliable visual scale among raters of different professions for a quick evaluation of parietal lobes on brain MRI within 1-2 minutes. We believe it could be used as an adjunct measure in differential diagnosis of dementias, especially early-onset AD.

• Klíčová slova
• Alzheimer's disease, Parietal Atrophy Score, brain magnetic resonance imaging, dementia, reliability, visual scale,
• MeSH
• atrofie MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• magnetická rezonanční tomografie MeSH
• mozek diagnostické zobrazování   patologie   MeSH
• neurozobrazování MeSH
• odchylka pozorovatele MeSH
• reprodukovatelnost výsledků MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• studie případů a kontrol MeSH
• stupeň závažnosti nemoci MeSH
• temenní lalok diagnostické zobrazování   patologie   MeSH
• testy pro posouzení mentálních funkcí a demence MeSH
• vizuální analogová stupnice MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

Small-scale robots (SSRs) have emerged as promising and versatile tools in various biomedical, sensing, decontamination, and manipulation applications, as they are uniquely capable of performing tasks at small length scales. With the miniaturization of robots from the macroscale to millimeter-, micrometer-, and nanometer-scales, the viscous and surface forces, namely adhesive forces and surface tension have become dominant. These forces significantly impact motion efficiency. Surface engineering of robots with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic functionalization presents a brand-new pathway to overcome motion resistance and enhance the ability to target and regulate robots for various tasks. This review focuses on the current progress and future perspectives of SSRs with hydrophilic and hydrophobic modifications (including both tethered and untethered robots). The study emphasizes the distinct advantages of SSRs, such as improved maneuverability and reduced drag forces, and outlines their potential applications. With continued innovation, rational surface engineering is expected to endow SSRs with exceptional mobility and functionality, which can broaden their applications, enhance their penetration depth, reduce surface fouling, and inhibit bacterial adhesion.

• Klíčová slova
• biocompatibility, drag resistances, environmental remediation, small-scale robots, wettability,
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH