Voluntary ambulation using voluntary upper limb muscle activity and Hybrid Assistive Limb® (HAL®) in a patient with complete paraplegia due to chronic spinal cord injury: A case report

Context: We sought to describe our experience with the Hybrid Assistive Limb® (HAL®) for active knee extension and voluntary ambulation with remaining muscle activity in a patient with complete paraplegia after spinal cord injury.

Findings: A 30-year-old man with complete paraplegia used the HAL® for 1 month (10 sessions) using his remaining muscle activity, including hip flexor and upper limb activity. Electromyography was used to evaluate muscle activity of the gluteus maximus, tensor fascia lata, quadriceps femoris, and hamstring muscles in synchronization with the Vicon motion capture system. A HAL® session included a knee extension session with the hip flexor and voluntary gait with upper limb activity. After using the HAL® for one month, the patient’s manual muscle hip flexor scores improved from 1/5 to 2/5 for the right and from 2/5 to 3/5 for the left knee, and from 0/5 to 1/5 for the extension of both knees.

Conclusion/clinical relevance: Knee extension sessions with HAL®, and hip flexor and upper-limb-triggered HAL® ambulation seem a safe and feasible option in a patient with complete paraplegia due to spinal cord injury.     

Outcomes after occupational therapy intervention for traumatic brachial plexus injury: A prospective longitudinal cohort study

Study DesignProspective longitudinal cohort study.IntroductionTraumatic brachial plexus injuries (BPIs) can be devastating and negatively impact daily function and quality of life. Occupational therapists play an important role in rehabilitation; however, studies identifying outcomes are lacking.PurposeThis study aims to describe outcomes including motor recovery, upper limb function, participation, pain, and quality of life for people receiving occupational therapy intervention.MethodsA convenience sample of English-speaking adults (n = 30) with a traumatic BPI, attending the clinic between December 1, 2014, to November 30, 2016, participated. Participants received occupational therapy focusing on sensorimotor retraining and activity-based rehabilitation. Data on active range of motion (goniometry), strength (Medical Research Council (MRC)), upper-limb function (UEFI15, QuickDASH), participation (PSFS), pain (Brief Pain Inventory), and quality of life (EQ-5D-3L) were collected at baseline, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months.ResultsElbow flexion strength showed significant improvement at all time-points, average increase 2.17 (MRC) (95% confidence interval: 1.29-3.04; P < .001) and mean final MRC grading 3.86 (standard error: 0.44). Significant improvements at 12 months were seen in: shoulder abduction strength and range, flexion strength and range, external rotation range; elbow extension strength and flexion range; thumb flexion and extension strength. Upper limb function (QuickDASH) showed significant improvement (mean change = 18.85; 95% confidence interval: 4.12-33.59; P = .02). Forearm protonation range and finger flexion strength were significantly worse. Remaining outcomes did not show significant improvement.ConclusionsOccupational therapy with surgical intervention can improve strength, range, and upper limb function with people following traumatic BPI. Further investigations into impact on participation, pain, and quality of life are required.     

消化道恶性肿瘤住院患者的能量消耗研究

目的评估消化道恶性肿瘤患者的能量消耗，探讨最佳计算公式及能量消耗的影响因素。方法采用连续入组法，纳入2016年3月至2016年12月在陆军军医大学第一附属医院肿瘤科住院治疗患者，运用代谢车测定其静息代谢能量（REE），使用Harris-Benedict公式和30kcal/（kg·d） 公式预测患者的一日总能量消耗（TEE）。收集研究对象的相关指标如年龄、身高、体重、病程、原位癌部位、是否荷瘤等。结果共纳入26例患者，其中包括食管癌11例，胃癌8例，结直肠癌7例，73%的患者处于高代谢状态，约69%的患者处于肿瘤Ⅳ期；其中不同病程和原位癌位置与静息能量消耗有差异，差异具有统计学意义；用30kcal/（kg·d）×体重估算TEE可能并不适用于消瘦的消化道肿瘤患者。结论消化道恶性肿瘤患者大多存在营养不良且处于高代谢状态，在给消化道恶性肿瘤患者提供能量时应适当考虑病程长短、肿瘤分期以及肿瘤部位等因素。尽量使用代谢车估算恶性肿瘤患者的TEE，若没有代谢车条件时，对于能下床活动的消化道恶性肿瘤患者，体质指数（BMI）≥18.5kg/m2者推荐使用30kcal/（kg·d）×实际体重的方法估算TEE，BMI<18.5kg/m2者推荐使用30kcal/（kg·d）×标准体重的方法估算TEE。     

A Snapshot of the Guidelines on Vesicoureteral Reflux in Children

The main goal in the management of patients with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is the preservation of kidney function by minimizing the risk of pyelonephritis. By defining and analyzing the risk factors for each patient depending on age, sex, grade of reflux, lower urinary tract dysfunction, anatomic abnormalities, and kidney status, it is possible to identify those patients with a potential risk of upper urinary tract infection and resulting renal scarring. This paper gives a brief overview of the European Association of Urology guidelines for the management and treatment of VUR in children. These guidelines are based on the best currently available knowledge and evidence.     

Loss of function,missense, and intronic variants in NOTCH1 confer different risks for left ventricular outflow tract obstructive heart defects in two European cohorts

Loss of function variants in NOTCH1 cause left ventricular outflow tract obstructive defects (LVOTO). However, the risk conferred by rare and noncoding variants in NOTCH1 for LVOTO remains largely uncharacterized. In a cohort of 49 families affected by hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a severe form of LVOTO, we discovered predicted loss of function NOTCH1 variants in 6% of individuals. Rare or low-frequency missense variants were found in 16% of families. To make a quantitative estimate of the genetic risk posed by variants in NOTCH1 for LVOTO, we studied associations of 400 coding and noncoding variants in NOTCH1 in 1,085 cases and 332,788 controls from the UK Biobank. Two rare intronic variants in strong linkage disequilibrium displayed significant association with risk for LVOTO amongst European-ancestry individuals. This result was replicated in an independent analysis of 210 cases and 68,762 controls of non-European and mixed ancestry. In conclusion, carrying rare predicted loss of function variants in NOTCH1 confer significant risk for LVOTO. In addition, the two intronic variants seem to be associated with an increased risk for these defects. Our approach demonstrates the utility of population-based data sets in quantifying the specific risk of individual variants for disease-related phenotypes.     

经皮肺动脉瓣植入术在肺动脉瓣反流患者中的临床应用

经皮肺动脉瓣植入术(PPVI)在我国作为一种新兴的技术,开展相对较晚,但随着我国医疗水平的不断提高以及临床对于右心室流出道梗阻的先天性心脏病患者术后出现重度肺动脉瓣反流的不断重视,PPVI在我国得到了飞速发展。近十几年来,欧美国家已在临床成熟应用PPVI,相对于传统外科手术而言其具有微创、可重复性、术后疗效好等优点。现对PPVI在肺动脉瓣反流患者中的临床应用进行叙述。     

Current standards and future perspectives in adjuvant treatment for biliary tract cancers

Biliary tract cancer, including cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and gallbladder cancer (GBC) are rare tumours with a rising incidence. Prognosis is poor, since most patients are diagnosed with advanced disease. Only ~20% of patients are diagnosed with early-stage disease, suitable for curative surgery. Despite surgery performed with potentially-curative intent, relapse rates are high, with around 60–70% of patients expected to have disease recurrence. Most relapses occur in the form of distant metastases, with a predominance of liver spread. In view of high tumour recurrence, adjuvant strategies have been explored for many years, in the form of radiotherapy, chemo-radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Historically, few randomised trials were available, which included a variety of additional tumours (e.g. pancreatic and ampullary tumours); most evidence relied on phase II and retrospective studies, with no high-quality evidence available to define the real benefit derived from adjuvant strategies.Since 2017, three randomised phase III clinical trials have been reported; all recruited patients with resected biliary tract cancer (CCA and GBC) who were randomised to observation alone, or chemotherapy in the form of gemcitabine (BCAT study; included patients diagnosed with extrahepatic CCA only), gemcitabine and oxaliplatin (PRODIGE-12/ACCORD-18; included patients diagnosed with CCA and GBC) or capecitabine (BILCAP; included patients diagnosed with CCA and GBC). While gemcitabine-based chemotherapy failed to show an impact on patient outcome (relapse-free survival (RFS) or overall survival (OS)), the BILCAP study showed a benefit from adjuvant capecitabine in terms of OS (pre-planned sensitivity analysis in the intention-to-treat population and in the per-protocol analysis), with confirmed benefit in terms of RFS. Based on the BILCAP trial, international guidelines recommend adjuvant capecitabine for a period of six months following potentially curative resection of CCA as the current standard of care for resected CCA and GBC. However, BILCAP failed to show OS benefit in the intention-to-treat (non-sensitivity analysis) population (primary end-point), and this finding, as well as some inconsistencies between studies has been criticised and has led to confusion in the biliary tract cancer medical community.This review summarises the adjuvant field in biliary tract cancer, with evidence before and after 2017, and comparison between the latest randomised phase III studies. Potential explanations are presented for differential findings, and future steps are explored.