Health literacy and health outcomes in HIV seropositive persons

Inadequate health literacy has been associated with worse health status and more hospitalizations. We examined the influence of personal characteristics and health literacy on body change distress, depressive symptoms, and HIV symptom intensity in a convenience sample of 489 HIV-seropositive adults throughout the United States. Health literacy was measured with the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) instrument. Those with higher health literacy scores reported more body change distress, depressive symptoms, and HIV symptom intensity. Being Latino and having higher health literacy scores were associated with poorer health outcomes. These results challenge the utility of the REALM to examine the relationship between health literacy and adverse health status.     

OC5Diagnosis of secondary syphilis due to oral lesions

Central giant cell granuloma (CGCG) is a benign lesion of unknown etiology that especially affects the jaws, usually appears in patients younger than 30 years and is more common in females than in males. Lesions generally occur in the anterior portion of the jaws and mandibular lesions frequently cross the midline. The conventional treatment of CGCG is surgical removal. According to clinical and radiological features, the extent of tissue removal ranges from simple curettage to an en bloc resection. We present an 8-year-old male patient, lack of any systemic disease or syndrome, complaining from painless swelling of the left posterior part of the mandible. In intraoral examination, a firm, expansive swelling with overlying intact mucosa, extending from mandibular primary canine to the distal portion of the left permanent first molar, was detected. A panoramic radiograph exhibited an ill-defined radiolucent lesion of 1.5 x 2 cm, extending from left permanent first molar to angulus mandibula and a well-defined, unilocular radiolucent lesion of 1 x 2 cm, extending from angulus to ramus mandibula on the asymptomatic right side. After the assessment of MRI, surgical removal was planned with the otorhinolaryngology department and lesions were totally removed under general anesthesia in two consecutive operation. Histopathologic examination revealed typical giant cell granuloma containing numerous multinucleated giant cells embedded in a fibrous stroma. In presenting this case we aimed to share occurrence of bilateral central giant cell granulomas of the mandible in the absence of hyperparathyroidism and associated syndromes, which is very rare in the literature.     

Metallic hip implants: CT with multiplanar reconstruction

Thirty consecutive patients with metallic implants in the hip were evaluated with both standard transaxial computed tomography (CT) and multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) to assess the contribution of MPR. The metallic devices included total hip replacements (n = 6), one or more surgical plates with screws (n = 9), acetabular pins or screws (n = 9), and Knowles pins (n = 6). The metallic implants were on the side of interest in 25 hips and in the contralateral hip in five cases. One patient had bilateral hardware. MPR reformats axially acquired data into other planes. The reconstruction program weights the true signal over the randomly distributed artifacts by integrating adjacent axial images. Examination using standard transaxial imaging was graded as excellent in five cases, adequate in 15 cases, and inadequate in ten cases. After MPR, 19 studies were classified as excellent, 11 were classified as adequate, and none were classified as inadequate. It is concluded that MPR significantly reduced artifacts caused by metal present in transaxial images.     

"It's hard to tell": The challenges of scoring patients on standardised outcome measures by multidisciplinary teams: a case study of neurorehabilitation

Background  

Interest is increasing in the application of standardised outcome measures in clinical practice. Measures designed for use in research may not be sufficiently precise to be used in monitoring individual patients. However, little is known about how clinicians and in particular, multidisciplinary teams, score patients using these measures. This paper explores the challenges faced by multidisciplinary teams in allocating scores on standardised outcome measures in clinical practice.     

Cerebral aspergilloma in a child with autosomal recessive chronic granulomatous disease

A 2 year old girl presented with epilepsy 16 months after being diagnosed as having autosomal recessive chronic granulomatous disease. Computed tomography showed a cerebral mass which was surgically removed and proved histologically to be an aspergilloma. This case illustrates the application of molecular diagnostic techniques to the diagnosis of chronic granulomatous disease. The occurrence of, and unusual reaction to, cerebral aspergillus infection indicates the need to consider this possibility in the differential diagnosis of mass lesions in chronic granulomatous disease. Furthermore, it is clear that autosomal recessive chronic granulomatous disease cannot be considered to be a clinically mild form that is exempt from major neurological complications.