Functional balance assessment in recreational college-aged individuals with a concussion history

Objectives

Despite evidence for increased musculoskeletal injury after concussion recovery, there is a lack of dynamic balance assessments that could inform management and research into this increased injury risk post-concussion. Our purpose was to identify tandem gait dynamic balance deficits in recreational athletes with a concussion history within the past 18-months compared to matched controls.

人工弓状线切开技术在弓状线变异腹腔镜全腹膜外腹股沟疝修补术中的应用：附视频

目的探讨人工弓状线切开技术在变异弓状线病例腹腔镜全腹膜外腹股沟疝修补术（TEP）应用的可靠性、安全性和有效性。 方法回顾性分析2016年7月至2019年8月广东医科大学茶山医院施行TEP的60例弓状线变异患者资料，在脐与耻骨联合连线中点人为切开腹直肌后鞘及其后面的腹横筋膜创建一条人工弓状线，并对其后面的腹膜前间隙进分离。影像记录弓状线的形态和手术步骤。 结果低位弓状线50例（83.3%），位于脐下8~12 cm，表现为不完整的腹直肌后鞘，向下呈逐渐变薄、变少的散在纤维。无弓状线10例（16.7%），有完整的腹直肌后鞘并一直延伸至耻骨。以人工弓状线为界分为两个层面，前面的是腹直肌后间隙，后面是腹膜前间隙，位于腹横筋膜（含有后鞘）与腹膜前筋膜浅层之间，是TEP理想的分离层面，沿此间隙向下分离与Retzius间隙相连，然后向外分离Bogros间隙。本组平均手术时间（130±15）min，术中腹膜损伤率8.3%（5/60）。术后发生血肿3例，血清肿2例，皮下气肿3例，无慢性疼痛病例。术后平均随访25个月，无复发病例。 结论人工弓状线切开技术在低位和无弓状线患者的TEP手术中安全有效、简单可靠，值得推广。     

A novel cysteine-sparing G73A mutation of NOTCH3 in a Chinese CADASIL family

neurogenetics - Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is the most common monogenic disease leading to stroke and vascular dementia....     

Polymerase Chain Reaction and Goldmann-Witmer Coefficient Testing in the Diagnosis of Infectious Uveitis in HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Patients in South Africa

Purpose: To use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Goldmann-Witmer coefficient (GWC) calculation to diagnose infectious uveitis.

Methods: Prospective cross-sectional study.

Results: Twenty-seven of 106 patients had positive PCR and/or GWC results on aqueous humor (AH) sampling and 15 of 27 (55.6%) were HIV-positive. Patients with non-anterior uveitis (NAU) were more likely to be HIV+ (p = 0.005). More than 1 possible pathogen was identified in 9 of 27 patients of whom 7 were HIV+. The final clinical diagnosis was discordant with AH findings in 9 of 27 cases. A positive EBV PCR result was associated with a discordant diagnosis (p = 0.001). All cases of herpetic anterior uveitis (42.9% HIV+) tested PCR-/GWC+ while all cases of herpetic NAU tested PCR+/GWC- (83.3% HIV+). All rubella virus cases were PCR+/GWC+.

Conclusion: PCR is useful to diagnose herpetic NAU in HIV+ patients while GWC is useful to diagnose herpetic anterior uveitis.     

Innovative Thinking on Endpoint Selection in Clinical Trials

ABSTRACT

In clinical trials, selection of appropriate study endpoints is critical for an accurate and reliable evaluation of safety and effectiveness of a test treatment under investigation. In practice, however, there are usually multiple endpoints available for measurement of disease status and/or therapeutic effect of the test treatment under study. For example, in cancer clinical trials, overall survival, response rate, and/or time to disease progression are usually considered as primary clinical endpoints for evaluation of safety and effectiveness of the test treatment under investigation. Once the study endpoints have been selected, sample size required for achieving a desired power is then determined. It, however, should be noted that different study endpoints may result in different sample sizes. In practice, it is usually not clear which study endpoint can best inform the disease status and measure the treatment effect. Moreover, different study endpoints may not translate one another although they may be highly correlated one another. In this article, we intend to develop an innovative endpoint namely therapeutic index based on a utility function to combine and utilize information collected from all study endpoints. Statistical properties and performances of the proposed therapeutic index are evaluated theoretically. A numerical example concerning a cancer clinical trial is given to illustrate the use of the proposed therapeutic index.