Mortality associated with Behçet’s disease in France assessed by multiple-cause-of-death analysis

Clinical Rheumatology - To examine the mortality rates and causes of death among French decedents with Behçet’s disease (BD). Data collected between 1979 and 2016 by the French...     

The clinimetric properties of the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II in early inflammatory arthritis

OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinimetric properties of a new health-related quality of life (HRQOL) instrument, the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS II), in patients with early inflammatory arthritis. METHODS: Internal consistency as well as criterion, construct, and discriminative validity of the WHODAS II were assessed in 172 patients with early inflammatory arthritis who completed the WHODAS II, the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 (SF-36), and other measures of disease severity, functioning, pain, depression, and resource use. Test-retest reliability of the WHODAS II was assessed by having a subset of 20 patients complete the WHODAS II a second time, 1 week after the first assessment. RESULTS: The WHODAS II had high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.96 for patients working or in school and 0.93 for patients not working or in school). Test-retest intraclass correlation coefficients of the WHODAS II total score and subscales ranged from 0.82-0.96. The WHODAS II total score was strongly correlated with the SF-36 physical component score (Kendall's tau-b 0.51, P < 0.001) and moderately correlated with the SF-36 mental component score (tau-b 0.43, P < 0.001). WHODAS II correlations with disease outcomes ranged from Kendall's tau-b 0.15-0.55. The WHODAS II significantly differentiated between every aspect of disease severity assessed with the exception of measures of health resource use. CONCLUSION: The WHODAS II is a valid and reliable measure of HRQOL in cross-sectional studies of patients with early inflammatory arthritis. Research is still required to investigate potential item redundancy and determine its usefulness in longitudinal studies.     

A gonial mitosis-stimulating factor in cerebral ganglia and hemolymph of the marine mussel Mytilus edulis L

A gonial mitosis-stimulating factor produced by the cerebral ganglia of the mussel Mytilus edulis has been demonstrated. This factor induces an increase of [3H]thymidine incorporation in the DNA of isolated mantle cells. Dose-response data are obtained with the methanol phase of an acidic ganglia extract. The rate of [3H]thymidine incorporation is compared with aspartate transcarbamylase specific activity, another bioassay previously described to estimate mitotic activity. This heat-stable mitogenic factor appears to have a molecular weight of less than 5000 Da. A gonial mitogenic factor is also found in the hemolymph and circulatory cells.     

Left main coronary artery aneurysm revealed by syncopal ventricular tachycardia in a 28-year-old woman

A 28-year-old woman was referred to our department with a syncopalsustained ventricular tachycardia with right bundle branch morphology.She was diagnosed with a pericarditis when she was 2 years old,and related an episode of palpitations     

A hybrid image fusion system for endovascular interventions of peripheral artery disease

Purpose

Interventional endovascular treatment has become the first line of management in the treatment of peripheral artery disease (PAD). However, contrast and radiation exposure continue to limit the feasibility of these procedures. This paper presents a novel hybrid image fusion system for endovascular intervention of PAD. We present two different roadmapping methods from intra- and pre-interventional imaging that can be used either simultaneously or independently, constituting the navigation system.

Methods

The navigation system is decomposed into several steps that can be entirely integrated within the procedure workflow without modifying it to benefit from the roadmapping. First, a 2D panorama of the entire peripheral artery system is automatically created based on a sequence of stepping fluoroscopic images acquired during the intra-interventional diagnosis phase. During the interventional phase, the live image can be synchronized on the panorama to form the basis of the image fusion system. Two types of augmented information are then integrated. First, an angiography panorama is proposed to avoid contrast media re-injection. Information exploiting the pre-interventional computed tomography angiography (CTA) is also brought to the surgeon by means of semiautomatic 3D/2D registration on the 2D panorama. Each step of the workflow was independently validated.

Results

Experiments for both the 2D panorama creation and the synchronization processes showed very accurate results (errors of 1.24 and \(2.6 \pm 1.4\) mm, respectively), similarly to the registration on the 3D CTA (errors of \(1.5 \pm 0.7\) mm), with minimal user interaction and very low computation time. First results of an on-going clinical study highlighted its major clinical added value on intraoperative parameters.

Conclusion

No image fusion system has been proposed yet for endovascular procedures of PAD in lower extremities. More globally, such a navigation system, combining image fusion from different 2D and 3D image sources, is novel in the field of endovascular procedures.

     

Semi-automatic detection of myocardial trabeculation using cardiovascular magnetic resonance: correlation with histology and reproducibility in a mouse model of non-compaction

Background

The definition of left ventricular (LV) non-compaction is controversial, and discriminating between normal and excessive LV trabeculation remains challenging. Our goal was to quantify LV trabeculation on cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) images in a genetic mouse model of non-compaction using a dedicated semi-automatic software package and to compare our results to the histology used as a gold standard.

Methods

Adult mice with ventricular non-compaction were generated by conditional trabecular deletion of Nkx2–5. Thirteen mice (5 controls, 8 Nkx2–5 mutants) were included in the study. Cine CMR series were acquired in the mid LV short axis plane (resolution 0.086?×?0.086x1mm³) (11.75 T). In a sub set of 6 mice, 5 to 7 cine CMR were acquired in LV short axis to cover the whole LV with a lower resolution (0.172?×?0.172x1mm3). We used semi-automatic software to quantify the compacted mass (M_c), the trabeculated mass (M_t) and the percentage of trabeculation (M_t/M_c) on all cine acquisitions_. After CMR all hearts were sliced along the short axis and stained with eosin, and histological LV contouring was performed manually, blinded from the CMR results, and M_t, M_c and M_t/M_c were quantified. Intra and interobserver reproducibility was evaluated by computing the intra class correlation coefficient (ICC).

Results

Whole heart acquisition showed no statistical significant difference between trabeculation measured at the basal, midventricular and apical parts of the LV. On the mid-LV cine CMR slice, the median M_t was 0.92 mg (range 0.07–2.56 mg), M_c was 12.24 mg (9.58–17.51 mg), M_t/M_c was 6.74% (0.66–17.33%). There was a strong correlation between CMR and the histology for M_t, M_c and M_t/ M_c with respectively: r²?=?0.94 (p?<?0.001), r²?=?0.91 (p?<?0.001), r²?=?0.83 (p?<?0.001). Intra- and interobserver reproducibility was 0.97 and 0.8 for M_t; 0.98 and 0.97 for M_c; 0.96 and 0.72 for M_t/M_c, respectively and significantly more trabeculation was observed in the M_c Mutant mice than the controls.

Conclusion

The proposed semi-automatic quantification software is accurate in comparison to the histology and reproducible in evaluating M_c, M_t and M_t/ M_c on cine CMR.

     

Validity and Reliability of Outcome Measures Assessing Dexterity,Coordination, and Upper Limb Strength in Autosomal Recessive Spastic Ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay

Objective

To document in adults affected by autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS) the intra- and interrater reliability, standard error of measurement, agreement, minimal detectable change, and construct validity of the 9-Hole Peg Test (NHPT), the Standardized Finger-to-Nose Test (SFNT), and grip strength.