Snapping of bilateral biceps femoris tendons: A case report and brief review

Snapping of the biceps femoris tendon is a rare cause of lateral knee pain often due to multiple factors including fibular head deformity and thickening of the anterior band of the biceps femoris tendon inserting on the tibia. Understanding the complex and poorly understood anatomy of the biceps femoris tendon is crucial and essential for proper diagnosis of its snapping. In this report, we describe the rare entity of bilateral biceps femoris tendon snapping in a young man using a multimodality diagnostic approach.     

Balloon-occluded antegrade transvenous obliteration of rectal varices: A case report

Patients with liver cirrhosis frequently experience rectal variceal bleeding subsequent to portal hypertension. Unlike gastroesophageal variceal bleeding, a well-established guideline does not exist in terms of management of bleeding rectal varices. A 75-year-old male with non-alcoholic-steatohepatitis induced cirrhosis presented with a 3-day history of severe rectorrhagia. Considering patient''s clinical history, TIPS was not performed and thus, a novel endovascular technique termed balloon-occluded antegrade transvenous obliteration was considered. Under conscious sedation, an occlusion was made through balloon catheter by sclerotic agents including air/sodium tetradecyl sulfate/Lipiodol. After the procedure, and in the 6 months follow up period the patient''s hemodynamic status was stable and he recovered without any serious complications. Balloon-occluded antegrade transvenous obliteration is a feasible and safe modality for treating rectal varices bleeding and could be used as an alternative approach in patients with contraindications to traditional treatments.     

Automated Registration and Color Labeling of Serial 3D Double Inversion Recovery MR Imaging for Detection of Lesion Progression in Multiple Sclerosis

Journal of Digital Imaging - Automated co-registration and subtraction techniques have been shown to be useful in the assessment of longitudinal changes in multiple sclerosis (MS) lesion burden,...     

The Use of Art Therapy in Alleviating Mental Health Symptoms in Refugees: A Literature Review

There are over thirty million refugees globally with severe experiences of trauma. Art therapy intervention allows for nonverbal expression and could alleviate mental health symptomatology among refugees. The present review’s aim was to integrate and summarize the previous research which examined the effects of visual arts on alleviating psychological conditions of refugees. However, due to the paucity of studies which solely used visual arts, we included studies that used visual arts alongside other modalities as part of an expressive arts therapy intervention. The present review synthesizes studies that examined the effect of art therapy on mental health issues of refugees from January 2000 to March 2021. Seven studies (child and adolescent sample, N = 5 and adult sample, N = 2) with a total of 298 refugee participants (n = 298) met our inclusion criteria. The participants were from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Southeast Asia, and Europe. We found three commonly reported mental health disorders, namely Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and Major Depression Disorder. The research highlights how art therapy interventions could be a great starting point to alleviate symptomatology among refugees. Four additional benefits of art therapy which were commonly reported across the seven studies emerged from this review: working with traumatic experience/loss, rebuilding social connection and trust, nonverbal communication and self-expression of loss and trauma, and retelling stories. Art therapy interventions could be used as a starting point in the healing process of traumatized refugees to encourage verbal articulation of their feelings and reduce mental health symptoms. Despite these promising findings, due to a dearth of robust methodologies, further research is required to assess the long-term effectiveness of art therapy.     

Antibodies to high‐density lipoprotein and β2‐glycoprotein I are inversely correlated with paraoxonase activity in systemic lupus erythematosus and primary antiphospholipid syndrome

Objective

To determine the prevalence of anti–high‐density lipoprotein (anti‐HDL) antibodies and to establish a possible relationship between anti‐HDL, anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL), anti–β₂‐glycoprotein I (anti‐β₂GPI), and paraoxonase (PON) activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and primary antiphospholipid syndrome (APS).

Methods

Thirty‐two patients with SLE and 36 with primary APS were enrolled in a cross‐sectional study. Twenty age‐ and sex‐matched healthy subjects were used as controls. Serum levels of IgG and IgM aCL, anti‐β₂GPI, and antiprothrombin antibodies and IgG anti‐HDL were measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, HDL₂, and HDL₃ were determined by standard enzymatic techniques. PON activity was assessed by quantification of nitrophenol formation, and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) by chemiluminescence.

Results

Levels of total HDL, HDL₂, and HDL₃ were reduced in patients with SLE compared with controls (mean ± SD 0.51 ± 0.3, 0.37 ± 0.3, and 0.14 ± 0.1 mmoles/liter, respectively, versus 1.42 ± 0.9, 1.01 ± 0.7, and 0.40 ± 0.2). Patients with SLE and primary APS had higher titers of anti‐HDL antibodies and lower PON activity than controls. In the SLE population, PON activity was inversely correlated with IgG anti‐HDL titers (r = −0.48, P = 0.005) whereas in the primary APS population, IgG anti‐β₂GPI was the only independent predictor of PON activity (r = −0.483, P = 0.003). In the SLE group, anti‐HDL was inversely correlated with TAC (r = −0.40, P < 0.02), and PON activity was positively correlated with TAC (r = 0.43, P < 0.02).

Conclusion

IgG anti‐HDL and IgG anti‐β₂GPI antibodies are associated with reduced PON activity in patients with SLE and primary APS. Since the physiologic role of PON is to prevent low‐density lipoprotein oxidation with its attendant atherogenic effects, the reported interactions may be relevant to the development of atherosclerosis in SLE and primary APS.