Segond tibial condyle fracture: lateral capsular ligament avulsion

Avulsion fractures in the appendicular skeleton are a result of stress on a specific structure that is firmly attached to bone. A small avulsion fracture from the directly lateral surface of the lateral tibial condyle results from excessive tension on the lateral capsular ligament of the knee joint. Recognition of this fracture on an anteroposterior radiograph of a traumatized knee represents substantial evidence of major injury to the lateral joint capsule. This fracture also has a strong association with rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament. The avulsed tibial fragment is remarkably constant in site and appearance. The typical fragment is isolated by a longitudinal fracture line separating a small piece of bone from the lateral tibia. It is elliptical in outline (10 X 3 mm), with its proximal border lying 4 mm distal to the subarticular cortex of the lateral tibial condyle. A hemarthrosis of the knee joint is consistently visible.     

Combining Viral Vectored and Protein-in-adjuvant Vaccines Against the Blood-stage Malaria Antigen AMA1: Report on a Phase 1a Clinical Trial

The development of effective vaccines against difficult disease targets will require the identification of new subunit vaccination strategies that can induce and maintain effective immune responses in humans. Here we report on a phase 1a clinical trial using the AMA1 antigen from the blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite delivered either as recombinant protein formulated with Alhydrogel adjuvant with and without CPG 7909, or using recombinant vectored vaccines—chimpanzee adenovirus ChAd63 and the orthopoxvirus MVA. A variety of promising “mixed-modality” regimens were tested. All volunteers were primed with ChAd63, and then subsequently boosted with MVA and/or protein-in-adjuvant using either an 8- or 16-week prime-boost interval. We report on the safety of these regimens, as well as the T cell, B cell, and serum antibody responses. Notably, IgG antibody responses primed by ChAd63 were comparably boosted by AMA1 protein vaccine, irrespective of whether CPG 7909 was included in the Alhydrogel adjuvant. The ability to improve the potency of a relatively weak aluminium-based adjuvant in humans, by previously priming with an adenoviral vaccine vector encoding the same antigen, thus offers a novel vaccination strategy for difficult or neglected disease targets when access to more potent adjuvants is not possible.     

The clinical significance of cytogenetic studies in 100 patients with multiple myeloma, plasma cell leukemia, or amyloidosis

Chromosome studies were done on 82 patients with multiple myeloma, 11 with amyloidosis, 2 with multiple myeloma and amyloidosis, and 5 with plasma cell leukemia to investigate their chromosomal abnormalities and to determine the usefulness of cytogenetic studies. A chromosomally abnormal clone was found in 29 patients but was observed most often in those with active disease: in 18% of patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, in 63% with aggressive disease, and in 40% with plasma cell leukemia. Survival among the newly diagnosed patients was significantly shorter (P = .0089) for those in whom an abnormal clone was identified (median survival, six months) than for those in whom only normal metaphases were observed (median survival, greater than 12 months). Among all of the patients, survival from the time of chromosome analysis was shorter for those in whom a chromosomally abnormal clone was found: the median survival was three months for patients with all abnormal metaphases and eight months for patients with normal and abnormal metaphases and has not yet been reached for patients with only normal metaphases. The most common anomalous chromosomes in patients with a plasma cell proliferative disorder were 1, 11, and 14: 11 patients had an abnormality involving chromosome 14q32 and nine patients had an anomalous chromosome 11. The single most common abnormality, a t(11;14)(q13;q32), occurred in three patients. Among the patients who developed preleukemia or acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, the most common anomaly involved chromosome 7. The results suggest that cytogenetic studies are useful for identifying patients who have a poor prognosis and can help distinguish patients with a cytopenia because of preleukemia from those with an aggressive plasma cell proliferative process.     

Case Report: Delayed resolution of severe pulmonary hypertension after isolated liver transplantation in a patient with cirrhosis

Pulmonary hypertension is now recognized to be a rare association of liver disease and portal hypertension. This report describes the slow resolution of symptomatic pulmonary hypertension in a 33-year-old woman with cirrhosis who underwent isolated liver transplantation. The patient survived the surgery and perioperative period without significant haemodynamic compromise. After liver transplantation, the patient was monitored with regular Doppler echocardiography. By 27 months the pulmonary hypertension had almost completely resolved. This observation is important, as it suggests that patients with severe pulmonary hypertension who survive the perioperative period may have an excellent outcome, although resolution may be slow.     

Lymphokine(s) from isolated T lymphocyte subpopulations support multilineage hematopoietic colony and megakaryocytic colony formation

Conditioned medium derived from peripheral mononuclear low-density cells stimulated with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) supports the growth of noncommitted hematopoietic progenitors from marrow and peripheral blood cells. These immature progenitors (CFU-GEMM) can be identified in culture as multilineage hematopoietic colonies containing erythroblasts, eosinophilic, basophilic and neutrophilic granulocytes, megakaryocytes, macrophages, and T and B lymphocytes. In this report, we describe the effect of lymphokines released from purified T lymphocyte preparations of helper (T4) and suppressor/cytotoxic (T8) phenotype derived from peripheral blood on the growth of multilineage hematopoietic colonies and megakaryocytic colonies. It was found that PHA-stimulated lymphocytes of T4 phenotype and, to a lesser extent, of T8 phenotype elaborate lymphokine(s) that support the growth and development of multilineage colonies (CFU-GEMM), granulopoietic colonies (CFU-C), erythroid bursts (BFU-E) and megakaryocytic colonies (CFU-M) by nonadherent and T cell-depleted bone marrow cells.     

Morphometry of human leukocytes

In order to establish quantitative models of leukocyte functions, several morphometric parameters on individual white cells are needed. These include the diameter, volume, and membrane area of the cells and their nuclei in the undeformed state. A stereologic method was used to obtain these quantities from transmission electron microscopy of random sections through human white blood cells (neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, and eosinophils). In order to estimate possible artifacts due to preparation of the cells for transmission electron microscopy, a detailed comparison with light microscopy was made. The results show that undeformed white cells in isotonic solution are spherical with many membrane foldings and have a significantly smaller diameter than that measured on blood smears. A method of chemical fixation was employed so that the shrinkage due to fixation of the cells is below the resolution of light microscopic measurements. Further, it was shown that all leukocytes, including lymphocytes, have much more membrane area than is needed to cover their volumes, and this membrane area remains constant when the cell is hypotonically swollen.     

Assessing the potential for improvement of primary care in 34?countries: a cross-sectional survey

Objective

To investigate patients’ perceptions of improvement potential in primary care in 34 countries.

Methods

We did a cross-sectional survey of 69 201 patients who had just visited general practitioners at primary-care facilities. Patients rated five features of person-focused primary care – accessibility/availability, continuity, comprehensiveness, patient involvement and doctor–patient communication. One tenth of the patients ranked the importance of each feature on a scale of one to four, and nine tenths of patients scored their experiences of care received. We calculated the potential for improvement by multiplying the proportion of negative patient experiences with the mean importance score in each country. Scores were divided into low, medium and high improvement potential. Pair-wise correlations were made between improvement scores and three dimensions of the structure of primary care – governance, economic conditions and workforce development.

Findings

In 26 countries, one or more features of primary care had medium or high improvement potentials. Comprehensiveness of care had medium to high improvement potential in 23 of 34 countries. In all countries, doctor–patient communication had low improvement potential. An overall stronger structure of primary care was correlated with a lower potential for improvement of continuity and comprehensiveness of care. In countries with stronger primary care governance patients perceived less potential to improve the continuity of care. Countries with better economic conditions for primary care had less potential for improvement of all features of person-focused care.

Conclusion

In countries with a stronger primary care structure, patients perceived that primary care had less potential for improvement.     

An evaluation of a Shockroom located CT scanner: a randomized study of early assessment by CT scanning in trauma patients in the bi-located trauma center North-West Netherlands (REACT trial)

Background

Trauma is a major source of morbidity and mortality, especially in people below the age of 50 years. For the evaluation of trauma patients CT scanning has gained wide acceptance in and provides detailed information on location and severity of injuries. However, CT scanning is frequently time consuming due to logistical (location of CT scanner elsewhere in the hospital) and technical issues. An innovative and unique infrastructural change has been made in the AMC in which the CT scanner is transported to the patient instead of the patient to the CT scanner. As a consequence, early shockroom CT scanning provides an all-inclusive multifocal diagnostic modality that can detect (potentially life-threatening) injuries in an earlier stage, so that therapy can be directed based on these findings.

Methods/design

The REACT-trial is a prospective, randomized trial, comparing two Dutch level-1 trauma centers, respectively the VUmc and AMC, with the only difference being the location of the CT scanner (respectively in the Radiology Department and in the shockroom). All trauma patients that are transported to the AMC or VUmc shockroom according to the current prehospital triage system are included. Patients younger than 16 years of age and patients who die during transport are excluded. Randomization will be performed prehospitally. Study parameters are the number of days outside the hospital during the first year following the trauma (primary outcome), general health at 6 and 12 months post trauma, mortality and morbidity, and various time intervals during initial evaluation. In addition a cost-effectiveness analysis of this shockroom concept will be performed. Regarding primary outcome it is estimated that the common standard deviation of days spent outside of the hospital during the first year following trauma is a total of 12 days. To detect an overall difference of 2 days within the first year between the two strategies, 562 patients per group are needed. (alpha 0.95 and beta 0.80).

Discussion

The REACT-trial will provide evidence on the effects of a strategy involving early shockroom CT scanning compared with a standard diagnostic imaging strategy in trauma patients on both patient outcome and operations research.

Trial registration

ISRCTN55332315