Visualization and documentation of perimortem traits in long bone fractures using computed tomography

Perimortem fracture patterns in long bones, defined in previous publications, include layered breakage, bone scales, crushed margins, flakes with flake def     

Tracking of physical activity during adolescence: the 1993 Pelotas Birth Cohort,Brazil

OBJECTIVE

To analyze physical activity during adolescence in participants of the 1993 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study, Brazil.

METHODS

Data on leisure time physical activity at 11, 15, and 18 years of age were analyzed. At each visit, a cut-off point of 300 min/week was used to classify adolescents as active or inactive. A total of 3,736 participants provided data on physical activity at each of the three age points.

RESULTS

A significant decline in the proportion of active adolescents was observed from 11 to 18 years of age, particularly among girls (from 32.9% to 21.7%). The proportions of girls and boys who were active at all three age points were 28.0% and 55.1%, respectively. After adjustment for sex, economic status, and skin color, participants who were active at 11 and 15 years of age were 58.0% more likely to be active at 18 years of age compared with those who were inactive at 11 and 15 years of age.

CONCLUSIONS

Physical activity declined during adolescence and inactivity tended to track over time. Our findings reinforce the need to promote physical activity at early stages of life, because active behavior established early tends to be maintained over time.     

Ischial apophyseal fracture in an abused infant

We report a previously healthy 4-month-old who presented to the hospital with leg pain and swelling and no history of trauma. Radiographs demonstrated a comminuted left femur fracture. Given the concern for child abuse, skeletal survey was performed and revealed four vertebral compression deformities. Although abuse was suspected, the possibility of a lytic lesion associated with the femur fracture and multiple spinal abnormalities raised the possibility of an underlying process such as Langerhans cell histiocytosis. Subsequently 18F-NaF positron emission tomographic (PET) scintigraphy revealed increased tracer activity in the ischium, and MRI confirmed an ischial apophyseal fracture. Pelvic fractures, particularly ischial fractures, are extremely rare in the setting of child abuse. This case report describes the multimodality imaging findings of an ischial fracture in an abused infant.     

Adolescents encouraging healthy lifestyles through a peer‐led social marketing intervention: Training and key competencies learned by peer leaders

BackgroundAdolescents who participate as peer leaders can benefit and acquire competencies from their peer leadership experience.ObjectivesTo identify the competencies gained by adolescents who participated as peer leaders in a healthy lifestyle study and to determine whether the training characteristics were related to improvement in competencies.DesignThe present study was part of the European Youth Tackling Obesity (EYTO) project, a multicentre social marketing intervention involving four European countries.Setting and ParticipantsEighteen peer leaders (aged 13–15 years, three or five leaders per country) from disadvantaged neighbourhoods received training in designing and implementing activities for their peers.MeasuresThe peer leaders'' confidence, experience and interest in 11 tasks related to lifelong learning competencies were assessed with questions rated on a colour scale at baseline and at the end of the study.ResultsThe peer leaders demonstrated improvements in experience, confidence and interest in different tasks, such as research, website or logo design, oral presentations, social media use and collaboration with people from other countries. They increased their confidence in management tasks (p = 0.03) and their confidence and experience in communication tasks (p = 0.01). The peer leaders from Spain and Portugal had greater improvements than those from the other countries.ConclusionThe peer leaders improved their confidence in management tasks and their confidence and experience in communication tasks. Slight differences were detected in improvement in competencies by country, likely due to the differences in the peer training applied. Recommendations for peer leader training are proposed, although these results should be verified with larger sample size.Patient or Public ContributionThe peer leaders contributed to the design and implementation of the training and intervention.     

A new preclinical femoral head osteonecrosis model in sheep

Introduction  

Animal models have been used as insight into the pathogenesis of osteonecrosis, even though most have failed to reproduce all stages of human disease, limiting progression in experimental treatment modalities. A new surgically induced animal model of femoral head osteonecrosis in sheep is presented.     

A comparative study of HER2/neu amplification and overexpression using fluorescencein situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 101 breast cancer patients

The HER2/neu protooncogene is expressed in the breast, ovarian, gastric and prostatic tumors. Studies done in a number of laboratories have demostrated that 25%–30% of breast cancer contain overexpression of HER2/neu gene. A comparative analysis of the amplification and overexpression of HER2/neu using fluorescencein situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed to determine the correlation between both techniques. In this study, FISH with HER2/neu probe (Path Vysion) is compared to immunohistochemistry (rabbit anti-human c-erbB-2-DAKO) in a series of 101 prospective human breast cancer specimens. Among 25 patients with score of IHC 3+, 23 (92%) were detected amplified by FISH and in two cases we found overexpression (3+) but without gene amplification. Out of 46 cases with 2+ by IHC, we found 43 not amplified, two moderately amplified (<10 copies) and one highly amplified (>10 copies) (6.5%). No patient with IHC O or 1+, presented amplification of HER2/neu. A good correlation between both techniques was found. FISH technique should have clinical utillity overoat in cases with 2+.