Pediatric Power Wheelchairs: Evaluation of Function in the Home and School Environments

The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of four power wheelchairs when used by children to perform a variety of indoor activities. Eight boys and eight girls performed a series of 11 functional tasks when positioned in each of four different power wheelchairs reflecting different design classes. There were no significant differences for many of the dependent variables. However, the Everaid Turbo was significantly better for functional positioning at a standard kitchen table and at school desks and for accessing objects at different heights. By contrast the Invacare Jaguar was better for straight-line driving speed. Other findings include children's subjective impressions of the four power wheelchairs.     

Follicular bronchiolitis in association with connective tissue diseases

Eleven patients with connective tissue diseases were found to have bronchiolar lesions associated with minimal or no alveolar septal thickening. Seven of these patients had rheumatoid arthritis, 3 had Sjögren’s syndrome, and 1 had ankylosing spondylitis. Radiographic studies showed an interstitial pattern in all patients. The patients were nonsmokers and received no treatment prior to biopsy. All lung biopsy specimens showed inflammatory bronchiolar lesions which consisted of bronchiolar and peribronchiolar lymphocytic infiltrates (follicular bronchiolitis). The bronchiolar lesion has been reported previously in patients with connective tissue diseases treated with D-penicillamine; whether it represents a component of the systemic disease or a lack of effect of the therapeutic agent had not been established. The present study shows that several connective tissue diseases can be associated with inflammatory bronchiolar lesions.     

Carcinoid heart disease: report of a case secondary to a pure carcinoid tumour of the ovary

Carcinoid heart disease secondary to ovarian carcinoid is arare finding, with only 12 cases reported in the literatureto date(1–3). Most ovarian carcinoids arise from ovariancysts or teratomata, the ‘pure’ carcinoid beingexceedingly rare(4). We present a case of carcinoid syndromewith tricuspid valve involvement in a patient with ‘pure’ovarian carcinoid.     

Prospective study of postoperative complications after total thyroidectomy for multinodular goiters by surgeons with experience in endocrine surgery

OBJECTIVES: (1) To show that total thyroidectomy (TT) can be performed in multinodular goiter (MG) by surgeons with experience in endocrine surgery with a definitive complication rate of 1% or less; and (2) to analyze the risk factors for complications in these patients. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: There is current controversy over the role of TT in the treatment of MG; although there are potential benefits, high rates of complications are not acceptable in surgery for a benign pathology. PATIENTS AND METHOD: A prospective study was conducted on 301 MGs meeting the following criteria: (1) bilateral MG; (2) no prior cervical surgery; (3) operation by surgeons with experience in endocrine surgery; (4) no associated parathyroid pathology; (5) no initial thoracic approach; and (6) minimum follow-up of 1 year. Age, sex, time of evolution, symptoms, cervical goiter grade, intrathoracic component, thyroid weight, and presence of associated carcinoma were analyzed as risk factors for complications. The chi test and a logistic regression analysis were applied. RESULTS: Complications were presented by 62 patients (21%), corresponding to 29 hypoparathyroidisms, 26 recurrent laryngeal nerve injuries, 4 lesions of the superior laryngeal nerve, 3 cervical hematomas, and 1 infection of the cervicotomy. The variables associated with the presence of these complications were hyperthyroidism (P = 0.0033), compressive symptoms (P = 0.0455), intrathoracic component (P = 0.0366), goiter grade (P = 0.0195), and weight of excised specimen (P = 0.0302); hyperthyroidism (relative risk [RR] 2.5) and intrathoracic component (RR 1.5) persisted as independent risk factors. Definitive complications appeared in 3 patients (1%), corresponding to 2 hypoparathyroidisms and 1 recurrent laryngeal nerve injury. Two cases corresponded to a toxic goiter, and the third to an intrathoracic goiter with compressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: In endocrine surgery units, TT can be performed for MG with a definitive complication rate of around 1%; the main independent risk factors for the development of complications are hyperthyroidism and goiter size.     

Optimization of the position of the acetabulum in a ganz periacetabular osteotomy by finite element analysis

Periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) is a surgical procedure to correct acetabular orientation in developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). It changes the position of the acetabulum to increase femoral head coverage and distribute the contact pressure over the cartilage surface. The success of PAO depends significantly on the surgeon's experience. Using computed tomography data from patients with DDH, we developed a 3D finite element (FE) model to investigate the optimal position of the acetabulum following PAO. A virtual PAO was performed with the acetabulum rotated in increments from the original center edge (CE) angle. Contact area, contact pressure, and Von Mises stress in the femoral and pelvic cartilage were analyzed. Five dysplastic hips from four patients were modeled. Contact area, contact pressure, and Von Mises stress in the cartilage all varied according to the change of CE angle through virtual PAO. An optimal position could be achieved for the acetabulum that maximizes the contact area while minimizing the contact pressure and von Mises stress in the pelvic and femoral cartilage. The optimal position of the acetabulum was patient dependent and did not always correspond to what would be considered a “normal” CE angle. We demonstrated for the first time the interrelation of correction angle, contact area, and contact pressure between the pelvic and femoral cartilage in PAO surgery. © 2012 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 31: 472–479, 2013     

How early L2 children perform on Italian clinical markers of SLI: A study of clitic production and nonword repetition

Early second language (EL2) learners generally perform more poorly than monolinguals in specific language domains, presenting similarities with children affected by specific language impairment (SLI). As a consequence, it can be difficult to correctly diagnose this disorder in EL2 children. The current study investigated the performance of 120 EL2 and 40 age-matched monolingual children in object clitic production and nonword repetition, which are two sensitive clinical markers of SLI in Italian. Results show that EL2 children underperform in comparison to monolinguals in the clitic task. However, in contrast to what is reported on Italian-speaking children with SLI, EL2 children tend not to omit clitics but instead produce the incorrect form, committing agreement errors. No differences are found between EL2 and monolingual children on nonword repetition. These results suggest that, at least in Italian, EL2 children only superficially resemble children with SLI and, on closer inspection, present a qualitatively and quantitatively different linguistic profile.     

MaSTR™: an effective probabilistic genotyping tool for interpretation of STR mixtures associated with differentially degraded DNA

International Journal of Legal Medicine - The recently developed probabilistic genotyping software package MaSTR™ (SoftGenetics LLC) was used to develop statistical weight estimates for a...