Agreement,reliability and validity in 3 shoulder questionnaires in patients with rotator cuff disease

Background  

Self-report questionnaires play an important role as outcome measures in shoulder research. Having an estimate of the measurement error of these questionnaires is of importance when assessing follow-up results after treatment and when planning intervention studies. The aim of this study was to cross-culturally adapt the Norwegian version of the OSS and WORC questionnaire and examine and compare agreement, reliability and construct validity of the disease-specific shoulder questionnaire WORC with two commonly used shoulder questionnaires, SPADI and OSS, in patients with rotator cuff disease.     

Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide-Like Immunoreactive Nerve Fibers in the Pineal Gland of the Sheep

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP)-like immunoreactive nerve fibers were demonstrated by peroxidase antiperoxidase (PAP) immunohistochemistry to be distributed throughout the entire pineal gland of the sheep. VIP-containing fibers were observed along the blood vessels, penetrating into the gland from the pial capsule and also in the capsule itself. Some fibers left the perivascular position and entered the pineal parenchyma, where they were located among pinealocytes. This suggested that the VIPergic fibers might influence both pinealocytes and blood vessels of the gland. The location of VIP-containing fibers in the capsule of the pineal gland indicates that the fibers originate from perikarya located in a peripheral ganglion.     

Comparison of two dose calculation methods applied to extracranial stereotactic radiotherapy treatment planning.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Lung tissue is a special challenge for a dose calculation algorithm, especially in the case of extracranial stereotactic radiotherapy (ESRT) due to small field sizes in combination with large variations in tissue density. The present study investigates the choice of dose calculation algorithm for 18 patients with a single lung tumor and 8 patients with a single liver tumor. The dose calculation is performed with both the pencil beam convolution algorithm and the collapsed cone convolution algorithm with the same number of monitor units in both cases. In addition, the dose calculation with the collapsed cone convolution algorithm is also performed with modified field sizes in order to match the Planning Target Volume (PTV) peripheral dose of the pencil beam based treatment. RESULTS: For liver tumors, the mean Clinical Target Volume (CTV) dose calculated by the collapsed cone convolution algorithm and the pencil beam convolution algorithm is almost identical. For lung tumors, the mean CTV dose determined by the collapsed cone convolution algorithm differs up to 20%. Plans obtained by the two algorithms have field sizes which differ up to 8mm for the same number of monitor units and minimum dose to the lung PTV. CONCLUSIONS: The choice of dose calculation algorithm can have a large influence on a treatment plan for ESRT of the lungs.     

Sentinel lymph nodes in cancer of the oral cavity – isolated tumour cells

BACKGROUND: Sentinel lymph node biopsy, step sectioning and immunohistochemistry have changed detection of tumour deposits. Isolated tumour cells (ITC) are detected more frequently than earlier because of a changed level of detection. METHODS: A total of 108 sentinel lymph nodes from 30 patients with T1/T2 cN0 oral cancer were re-classified histologically to find possible ITC and to describe technical pitfalls. RESULTS: Primarily we found metastatic spread in 12 of 108 sentinel lymph nodes: five macrometastasis and seven micrometastasis. After re-classification, we found seven lymph nodes with macrometastasis, five with micrometastasis and two with ITC. CONCLUSION: The ITC are probably precursors of micrometastasis waiting to grow and should be treated as such. Benign inclusions and dendritic cells did not cause problems, but can mimic ITC.     

Palliative care for cancer patients in a primary health care setting: Bereaved relatives' experience, a qualitative group interview study

Background  

Knowledge about the quality and organisation of care to terminally ill cancer patients with a relatives' view in a primary health care setting is limited.     

A Quantitative and Dynamic Model for Plant Stem Cell Regulation

Plants maintain pools of totipotent stem cells throughout their entire life. These stem cells are embedded within specialized tissues called meristems, which form the growing points of the organism. The shoot apical meristem of the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana is subdivided into several distinct domains, which execute diverse biological functions, such as tissue organization, cell-proliferation and differentiation. The number of cells required for growth and organ formation changes over the course of a plants life, while the structure of the meristem remains remarkably constant. Thus, regulatory systems must be in place, which allow for an adaptation of cell proliferation within the shoot apical meristem, while maintaining the organization at the tissue level. To advance our understanding of this dynamic tissue behavior, we measured domain sizes as well as cell division rates of the shoot apical meristem under various environmental conditions, which cause adaptations in meristem size. Based on our results we developed a mathematical model to explain the observed changes by a cell pool size dependent regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation, which is able to correctly predict CLV3 and WUS over-expression phenotypes. While the model shows stem cell homeostasis under constant growth conditions, it predicts a variation in stem cell number under changing conditions. Consistent with our experimental data this behavior is correlated with variations in cell proliferation. Therefore, we investigate different signaling mechanisms, which could stabilize stem cell number despite variations in cell proliferation. Our results shed light onto the dynamic constraints of stem cell pool maintenance in the shoot apical meristem of Arabidopsis in different environmental conditions and developmental states.     

κ-Opioid Receptor Agonists Differentially Affect the Release of Neurohypophysial Hormones

The influence of x-opioid receptor agonists and antagonists on release of oxytocin and vasopressin was examined in isolated rat neurointermediate lobes. Electrically evoked release of oxytocin and vasopressin was concentration-dependently inhibited by the specific x-receptor agonist U69593, whereas bremazocine only inhibited the secretion of oxytocin markedly. Treatment with naloxone enhanced the evoked release of oxytocin significantly without effect on vasopressin secretion. The U69593-mediated inhibition of oxytocin release was abolished by naloxone, whereas that of vasopression was unaffected. Naloxone did not reverse the bremazocine-induced inhibition of hormone release. The data support the theory of an inhibiting endogenous control over oxytocin secretion and show that the release of oxytocin and vasopresin is differentially affected by the two K-receptor agonists.