Sagittal spinal alignment deviation in the general elderly population: a Japanese cohort survey randomly sampled from a basic resident registry

BACKGROUND CONTEXT

It is widely recognized that sagittal spinal alignment changes with age. However, there are presently no clear benchmarks for such values or those for the cervical spine in the general population. Quality epidemiological studies are needed to establish standards for spinal alignment deviation.

Toward liquid biopsies in cancer treatment: application of circulating tumor DNA

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) refers to the fraction of cell‐free DNA in a patient's blood originating from tumor cells. Increased knowledge about tumor genomics, improvements in targeted therapies, and accompanying advances in DNA‐sequencing technologies have increased the interest in using ctDNA as a minimally invasive tool in cancer diagnostics and treatment. Especially, early tumor detection including identification of minimal residual disease and stratification of adjuvant therapy are promising approaches. Also, ctDNA showed to be reliable in treatment monitoring and can be used to assess therapy resistance due to the broad variety of tumor subclones captured in ctDNA. Therefore, using ctDNA in the clinical setting has the potential to improve therapeutic outcomes. In the present review, we summarize the status of ctDNA in oncology with focus of being an alternative to tissue biopsies in early detection and treatment monitoring.     

Education and training in clinical neuropsychology: Recent developments and documents from the clinical neuropsychology synarchy

The Clinical Neuropsychology Synarchy (CNS) interfaces with the American Psychological Association and affiliated organizations to address issues and advances in specialty training. The past several years have seen the development and dissemination of several initiatives pertinent to specialty training. Among these initiatives was the creation of a taxonomy for education and training in clinical neuropsychology. In additional there has been a movement toward competency-based education that has become codified in the APA’s new Standards for Accreditation. Calls for competency-based education have also influenced the expectations of the APA’s Committee on Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology. As the convener of national clinical neuropsychology organizations, the CNS has overseen the development of relevant documents for our specialty. This paper presents three documents critical to training in our field that were developed through the CNS and approved by its member organizations. The first is the Taxonomy for Education and Training in Clinical Neuropsychology. The second is Entry Level Competencies for Clinical Neuropsychology and the third is a distillation of the entry-level competency document for the purpose of identifying competencies to be addressed at the post-doctoral residency level.     

Re-engineering the interpretation of electronic fetal monitoring to identify reversible risk for cerebral palsy: a case control series

Background: Even key opinion leaders now concede that electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) cannot reliably identify fetal acidemia which many vouch as the only labor mediated pathophysiologic precursor for cerebral palsy (CP). We have developed the “Fetal Reserve Index” – an algorithm combining five dynamic components of EFM (1. Rate, 2. Variability, 3. Accelerations, 4. Decelerations, and 5. Excessive uterine activity) considered individually that are combined with the presence of: 6. maternal, 7. obstetrical, and 8. fetal risk factors.

Objective: Here, we compare this 8-point fetal reserve index (FRI) against the performance of ACOG monograph criteria and ACOG Category systems for predicting risk for both CP and the need for emergency operative delivery (EOD). We then studied how varied management for screen positives (Red zone-defined below) impacts the outcome of such cases.

Study design: Four hundred twenty term patients were studied: all entered labor with normal EFMs and no apparent cause of harm except events of labor and delivery. Sixty subsequently developed CP, and 360 were apparently normal controls. An FRI, normal on all eight parameters scored 100%, 4 of the 8 was 50%, etc. We divided cases into Green zone >50%, Yellow 50–26%, and Red ≤25%. An FRI in the Red zone was considered a positive screen. We then compared performance metrics for the three evaluation schemes and differences between controls that reached Red against those controls whose worst scores were Green/Yellow.

Results: For detection of injury during labor, the FRI performed much better than the ACOG Category criteria (sensitivity 28%), and Category III (45%) (p?Conclusions: FRI shows better discrimination for adverse fetal outcome and EOD than traditional EFM interpretation. The Category system is a very poor, subjective screening method as the vast majority of CP babies never reach the “action point” result of Category III. While reaching the Red zone does not ordain a bad outcome, how it is managed, does. Compared to CP cases, Red controls were delivered faster, had higher FRIs, and often had prompt management including IR maneuvers, which improved the FRI and lowered the risk of EODs even for cases with normal outcomes. With further study and validation, the quantitative FRI approach may replace the current, very subjective interpretation with a quantitative “lab test” approach.     

Sécurisation de la prise en charge médicamenteuse des patients sous antipsychotiques : impact de la collaboration médico-pharmaceutique à la Maison d’Arrêt de Lyon-Corbas

ObjectiveAntipsychotics are the standard treatment for psychosis. However, when combined with other lifestyle factors they are partially responsible for an excessive mortality rate. A clinical and paraclinical monitoring of patients is therefore necessary. In 2011, this element led doctors and pharmacists to improve monitoring and formalize a follow-up adapted to inmate patients. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of medical-pharmaceutical collaboration on monitoring quality of patients treated by antipsychotics.MethodsThis is a retrospective study including all patients treated by antipsychotics for at least 6 months in 2011 and again in 2015. Data were collected from medical files. The indicator assessing the monitoring quality was the compliance percentage, of registred parameters for each patient on the basis of specific guidelines.ResultsIn 2015 compared to 2011, the monitoring quality increased for 9 out of 10 parameters. This improvement was statisticaly significant for 7 of them : Body Mass Index, lipid test, complete blood count, transaminase, ionogram, glycemia, glomerular filtration rate.ConclusionThe actions of improvement collectivelly implemented in 2011 had a concrete impact on patients in the follow-up in 2015.