Cardiac Rehabilitation in the Elderly: Improving Effectiveness

Heart disease is a major cause of mortality and morbidity among adults who are older than 65 years of age. One-third of cardiac operations on adults in the United States are performed on patients who are more than 65 years old, and almost half of the hospitalized candidates for an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program are in the older patient population. Structured educational programs that include exercise and modification of risk factors have been shown to reduce the risk of subsequent coronary events; however, studies show that older adults enroll in these programs at a significantly lower rate than do patients in other age groups. Nurses and other healthcare professionals must eliminate barriers to participation and adapt their programs to meet the needs of older adults with cardiac disease to reduce morbidity, enhance functioning, and improve quality of life. In this article, the authors describe current knowledge about the efficacy and use of cardiac education and rehabilitation in elderly patients and suggest implications for future practice and research.     

韦格纳肉芽肿合并肺结核8例临床分析并文献复习

  目的  分析韦格纳肉芽肿合并肺结核的临床特征。  方法  回顾性分析北京协和医院1990年5月至2010年5月收治的韦格纳肉芽肿合并肺结核8例的临床特征, 并复习相关文献。  结果  8例患者中男性5例, 女性3例; 发病年龄最小19岁, 最大70岁, 平均年龄52.7岁。首先诊断韦格纳肉芽肿, 并在激素应用过程中诊断肺结核5例, 这5例患者均为痰涂片抗酸杆菌阳性患者, 其中4例否认结核病史及结核接触史; 同时诊断韦格纳肉芽肿合并肺结核2例; 首先诊断肺结核, 后诊断合并韦格纳肉芽肿1例。临床表现肺部最常见为咯血, 其次为咳嗽、咳痰, 其他器官受累包括肾脏(异型红细胞尿), 耳鼻喉(流脓涕、听力受损)。韦格纳肉芽肿合并结核感染的治疗, 在尽量不减少激素剂量的同时加强抗结核治疗。  结论  韦格纳肉芽肿合并肺结核并不少见, 应引起临床医生的重视, 早期诊断, 积极治疗, 改善预后。     

Performance of the SF-36, SF-12, and RAND-36 summary scales in a multiple sclerosis population

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients accumulate both physical and mental health problems along with disease progression. Valid and sensitive outcome measures are important to measure disease effects and the effect of treatment. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to test the performance of the physical and mental summary scales of SF-36, SF-12, and RAND-36. METHODS: The scales were evaluated by comparing the scores of a cohort of 194 MS patients with general population data and using the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and the Incapacity Status Scale-mental as criterion variables for physical functioning and mental health. RESULTS: All 3 physical summary scales were markedly reduced and correlated highly with the EDSS. The SF-36 mental summary score was only slightly reduced among MS patients (0.2 SD) compared with the general population, despite significantly reduced scores on all 4 health scales being most related to mental health and despite a high prevalence of mental health problems. This results from the poor physical functioning (mean scale score, 2.3 SD below the general population) and the orthogonal factor rotation used to derive independent measures of physical and mental health. Similar results were found for the SF-12. The nonorthogonal RAND-36 physical and mental summary scores were both markedly reduced. This is more compatible with the disease progression in MS and the results of the other measures of physical and mental health used in the study. CONCLUSIONS: The SF-36 and SF-12 mental health summary scales appear to overestimate mental health in people with MS.     

心脏手术后右美托咪定镇静效果的Meta分析

目的系统评价心脏手术后有美托咪定镇静的疗效和安全性。方法计算机检索PubMed、EBSCO、Springer、Ovid、Cochrane Library、CNKI、VIP和Wanfang Data,同时手工检索相关专业杂志并追溯纳入义献的参考文献,检索时限均为建库至2012年5月。由两名评价者按照纳入与排除标准选择试验、提取资料和评价质最后,采用RevMan5．1软件进行Meta分析：结果纳入8个随机对照试验（RCT）,共1157例患者。7个RCT的Iadad评分〉3分,仅1个为2分。Meta分析结果显示：与对照组比较,右美托咪定更能提高末梢血氧饱和度[RR=0．90,95％CI（0．31,O．49）,P=0．003],降低平均心率[RR=-5．86,95％CI（-7．31,-4．40）,P〈0．00001]、室性心动过速[RR=0．27,95％CI（0．08,0．88）,P=0．03]、躁动[RR=0．28,95％CI（0．16,0．48）,P〈0．00001]、高血糖[RR=0．57,95％CI（0．38,0．85）,P=0．006]的发生率,还能减少需要肾上腺素[RR=0．53,95％CI（0．29,o．96）,P=0．04]及β-受体阻滞剂支持的患者数[RR=0．60,95％CI（0．38,0．94）,P=0．03]。但右美托咪定并不能缩短心脏术后患者ICU住院时间[RR=-1．24,95％CI（-4．35,1．87）,P=0．43]和机械通气时间[RR=-2．28,95％CI（-5．13,0．57）,P=0．12],也不能提高平均动脉压[RR=-2．78,95％CI（-6．89,1．34）,P=0．19],且对术后恶心呕吐和房颤的控制效果不佳。此外,两组患者在心肌梗死、急性心衰、急性肾衰及病死率方面,差异无统计学意义。结论右美托咪定用于心脏手术术后镇静时可明显稳定血流动力学指标,降低室性心动过速、躁动及术后高血糖的发生率并减少血管活性药物的应用,但对患者预后无明显影响？由于纳入研究的数量和质量有限,本研究结论尚需高质量、大样本的RCT证实。     

肺隔离症误诊为肺脓肿一例并文献复习

目的加强对肺隔离症(pulmonary sequestration,PS)临床特点及诊疗手段的认识,减少临床误漏诊。方法回顾性分析PS误诊肺脓肿1例的临床资料,并结合文献进行复习。结果本例男,43岁,因咳嗽、咳痰伴发热就诊,门诊胸部CT平扫示左下肺空洞伴液平面,以肺脓肿收入院予抗感染治疗有效,继续治疗1个月后,因肺部病变未吸收,行胸部CT增强扫描示胸主动脉下段有一分支进入左下肺基底段病灶内,修正诊断为PS,转外科择期手术治疗,术后病理证实诊断。结论 PS临床表现无特异性,极易误漏诊,对于肺部感染反复发生或经抗感染治疗后病灶不吸收,尤其是年轻、病灶位于左下肺者,应警惕PS可能,胸部CT增强扫描等检查有助于确诊。     

Comparative Effectiveness of Platelet-Rich Plasma Injections for Treating Knee Joint Cartilage Degenerative Pathology: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective

To explore the effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in treating cartilage degenerative pathology in knee joints.

Data Sources

Electronic databases, including PubMed and Scopus, were searched from the earliest record to September 2013.

Study Selection

We included single-arm prospective studies, quasi-experimental studies, and randomized controlled trials that used PRP to treat knee chondral degenerative lesions. Eight single-arm studies, 3 quasi-experimental studies, and 5 randomized controlled trials were identified, comprising 1543 participants.

Data Extraction

We determined effect sizes for the selected studies by extracting changes in functional scales after the interventions and compared the PRP group pooled values with the pretreatment baseline and the groups receiving placebo or hyaluronic acid (HA) injections.

Data Synthesis

PRP injections in patients with knee degenerative pathology showed continual efficacy for 12 months compared with their pretreatment condition. The effectiveness of PRP was likely better and more prolonged than that of HA. Injection doses ≤2, the use of a single-spinning approach, and lack of additional activators led to an uncertainty in the treatment effects. Patients with lower degrees of cartilage degeneration achieved superior outcomes as opposed to those affected by advanced osteoarthritis.

Conclusions

PRP application improves function from basal evaluations in patients with knee joint cartilage degenerative pathology and tends to be more effective than HA administration. Discrepancy in the degenerative severity modifies the treatment responses, leading to participants with lower degrees of degeneration benefiting more from PRP injections.     

The Use of Virtual Reality in Back Pain Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This systematic review aimed to synthesize the existing evidence of extended reality (XR) on pain and motor function outcomes in patients with back pain. Following the Cochrane guidelines, relevant articles of any language were selected by 2 independent reviewers from CINAHL, Cochrane, Embase, Medline and Web of Knowledge databases. Of 2,050 unique citations, 24 articles were included in our review. These studies included a total of 900 back pain patients. Despite broader XR search, all interventions were virtual reality (VR) based and involved physical exercises (n = 17, 71%), hippotherapy (n = 4, 17%), motor imagery (n = 1, 4%), distraction (n = 1, 4%), and cognitive-behavior therapy (n = 1, 4%). Sixteen controlled studies were included in a meta-analysis which suggested that VR provides a significant improvement in terms of back pain intensity over control interventions (Mean Difference: -0.67; 95% CI: -1.12 to -0.23; I² = 85%). Almost all included studies presented high risk of bias, highlighting the need to improve methodology in the examination of VR interventions. While the specific set of studies showed high heterogeneity across several methodological factors, a tentative conclusion could be drawn that VR was effective improving back pain intensity and tends to have a positive effect on improving other pain outcomes and motion function.PerspectiveExtended reality technologies have appeared as interesting nonpharmacological options for the treatment of back pain, with the potential to minimise the need for opioid medications. Our systematic review summarised existing applications of extended reality for back pain and proposed a few recommendations to direct further studies in the field.     

Cardiac Rehabilitation for Women: A Systematic Review of Barriers and Solutions

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) services improve various clinical outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease, but such services are underutilized, particularly in women. The aim of this study was to identify evidence-based barriers and solutions for CR participation in women. A literature search was carried out using PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, OVID/Medline, and CINAHL to identify studies that have assessed barriers and/or solutions to CR participation. Titles and abstracts were screened, and then the full-text of articles that met study criteria were reviewed. We identified 24 studies that studied barriers to CR participation in women and 31 studies that assessed the impact of various interventions to improve CR referral, enrollment, and/or completion of CR in women. Patient-level barriers included lower education level, multiple comorbid conditions, non-English native language, lack of social support, and high burden of family responsibilities. We found support for the use of automatic referral and assisted enrollment to improve CR participation. A small number of studies suggest that incentive-based strategies, as well as home-based programs, may contribute to improving CR attendance and completion rates. A systematic approach to CR referral, including automatic CR referral, may help overcome barriers to CR referral in women and should be implemented in clinical practice. However, more studies are needed to help identify the best methods to improve CR attendance and completion of CR rates in women.     

Troponin Levels after Cardiac Electrophysiology Procedures: Review of the Literature

Cardiac-specific Troponins (cTn) I and T have become markers of choice for myocardial injury. We reviewed the literature in order to understand the expected postprocedure cTn rise after electrophysiology procedures. A total of 34 studies and 1,608 patients were included. After external monophasic cardioversion, seven of 442 patients (1.6%) had minimal increase in cTnI (0.1–0.9 ng/mL), and only one of 368 (0.3%) had increase in cTnT (0.11 ng/mL). After internal cardioversion, 17 of 105 (16%) had increase in cTnI (0.7–2.4 ng/mL) but only three (2.9%) were above the cutoff for myocardial infarction (MI) (1.5 ng/mL). During implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) installation with a mean of 2–7 ICD shocks, 12 of 74 (16%) patients had cTnI ≥1.5 ng/mL (range 1.7–5.5 ng/mL) and 20 of 64 (32%) had cTnT ≥0.1 ng/mL (range 0.26–6.46 ng/mL) considered in the range of clinical MI. Radio frequency ablation (RFA) (n = 496) resulted in significant cTn elevation in 25–100% of patients with ventricular > atrial and linear > focal lesions. Average postprocedure peak cTnI ranged from 0.13 to 6 ng/mL (median: 2.36 ng/mL, max: 15 ng/mL) and cTnT 0.2 to 2.41 ng/mL (median: 0.44 ng/mL, max: 9 ng/mL). Early cTn peak at 2–8 hours was noted after RFA. External cardioversion should not cause a significant increase in cTn; RFA and ICD implantation with shocks often result in an increase in cTn. Interpretation of these markers can be difficult if acute coronary syndrome is suspected in the postprocedure period .     

Use of SF-36 and SF-12 health status measures: a quantitative comparison for groups versus individual patients

BACKGROUND: The extent to which SF-12 scores reflect SF-36 scores has not been well studied. OBJECTIVES: One purpose was to compare the sensitivity to change of the SF-36 Physical Function sub-score, and the Physical Component Summary Scores (PCS) of the SF-36 and SF-12 on patients with low back pain (LBP). A second purpose was to determine if the SF-12 could serve as a surrogate measure for the SF-36 when making decisions about individual patients. SUBJECTS: The sample consisted of 101 consecutive patients. MEASURES: SF-36 questionnaires were completed by patients at both initial and discharge examinations. SF-12 scores were calculated from the completed SF-36 questionnaires. Therapists' judgments of whether patients were judged to have returned to premorbid function served as the construct for meaningful clinical change. ANALYSIS: Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and repeated measures MANCOVA were used to assess sensitivity to change. Linear regression and 95% prediction bands described the extent to which SF-12 scores predict individual SF-36 scores. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between the ROC curve areas for the Physical Function sub-scale, the PCS-36 and PCS-12. No significant differences were found for the comparison of change scores between PF-36, PCS-36 and PCS-12 scores. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that Physical Function sub-scores, SF-36 and SF-12 PCS scores are equally sensitive to change. SF-12 PCS scores do not adequately predict SF-36 PCS scores for individual patients. The PCS-12 should probably not be used to make judgments about the health status of individual patients with LBP.     

Cardiac Myxoma: A Rare Case Series of 3 Patients and a Literature Review

Myxoma is the most common tumor in the heart. A typical myxoma is relatively straightforward to diagnose. However, certain cardiac myxomas have rare features. We report three extremely rare cases of cardiac myxoma. One case involved a myxoma that originated from the annulus of the tricuspid after valvuloplasty, one case involved myxomas associated with left atrial thrombus and severe mitral stenosis, and the third case involved myxoma combined with severe calcification. All three cases were diagnosed by echocardiography and pathology. We also review clinical presentations and diagnostic characteristics of cardiac myxomas.     

A comparison of the responsiveness of the Nottingham extended activities of daily living scale, London handicap scale and SF-36

Purpose: Clinical trials require scales which are sensitive to the effects of intervention. This study examined the sensitivity to change of three generic health status measurement scales commonly used in evaluations of interventions in chronic, disabling disease. Methods: Questionnaires comprising the SF-36, London Handicap Scale and Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living scale were administered to 81 patients before and after hip replacement. Changes were quantified as 'effect sizes'. Results: Eighty nine per cent of patients reported improvements three months after surgery. The largest changes were seen on the SF-36 pain scale (effect size 1.2 at three months, 1.5 at 6-12 months), physical function (1.1, 1.3) and role limitation - physical (0.8, 1.2) scales. The London Handicap Scale also measured large changes (effect sizes 0.6, 0.9), but the Extended Activities of Daily Living scale was insensitive to change (effect sizes 0.1, 0.2). Conclusions: Some of the SF-36 dimensions were very sensitive to change. The London Handicap Scale was also reasonably responsive, and has the advantage of being a single, utility-based, score. The simpler Extended ADL score was poorly responsive.     

A comparison of the responsiveness of the Nottingham extended activities of daily living scale,London handicap scale and SF-36

Purpose : Clinical trials require scales which are sensitive to the effects of intervention. This study examined the sensitivity to change of three generic health status measurement scales commonly used in evaluations of interventions in chronic, disabling disease. Methods : Questionnaires comprising the SF-36, London Handicap Scale and Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living scale were administered to 81 patients before and after hip replacement. Changes were quantified as 'effect sizes'. Results : Eighty nine per cent of patients reported improvements three months after surgery. The largest changes were seen on the SF-36 pain scale (effect size 1.2 at three months, 1.5 at 6-12 months), physical function (1.1, 1.3) and role limitation - physical (0.8, 1.2) scales. The London Handicap Scale also measured large changes (effect sizes 0.6, 0.9), but the Extended Activities of Daily Living scale was insensitive to change (effect sizes 0.1, 0.2). Conclusions : Some of the SF-36 dimensions were very sensitive to change. The London Handicap Scale was also reasonably responsive, and has the advantage of being a single, utility-based, score. The simpler Extended ADL score was poorly responsive.     

FLIC、SF-36和QOL-LC量表在肝癌患者生活质量测定中的应用比较

目的比较癌症患者生活功能指标量表(FLIC)、健康调查简表(SF-36)和肝癌患者生活质量测定量表(QOL-LC)在肝癌患者生活质量测定中的应用效果。方法以2010～2011年选定的调查医院肝癌住院患者105例为研究对象,采用FLIC、SF-36和QOL-LC量表分别进行3次纵向测定,计算和比较各量表的信度、效度和反应度。结果 QOL-LC的效度、信度比FLIC和SF-36量表好;在反应度方面,QOL-LC及FLIC量表均显示躯体功能与总生命质量的变化差异有统计学意义(QOL-LC:t=5.08;P=0.000;t=3.16;P=0.002;FLIC:t=4.02;P=0.000;t=2.21;P=0.030)。SF-36量表除一般健康状况和心理健康两个领域外,其余领域的治疗前后得分变化均有统计学意义(躯体功能t=5.94;P=0.000;躯体角色t=3.07;P=0.003;身体疼痛t=3.21;P=0.002;生命力t=3.22;P=0.002;社会角色t=2.60;P=0.012;情绪角色t=3.28;P=0.002)。结论 QOL-LC是测定肝癌患者生活质量的特异量表,在评估肝癌患者生活质量时是首选,而SF-36和FLIC量表能反映肝癌患者生命质量的共性部分,在缺少特异性量表的情况下,可用于测评肝癌患者的生活质量。