Understanding congenital vertical talus

Congenital vertical talus (CVT) is a rare foot deformity that presents with a rigid flat foot at birth. CVT can present as an isolated abnormality in the newborn, however in at least 50% of cases in association with other conditions. Full neuro-axial imaging is essential to detect any associated neurologic problems. Radiographs of the foot, including forced plantar and dorsiflexion laterals, are diagnostic. Gold standard modern treatment uses the Dobbs method of serial manipulation and casting with minimally-invasive stabilization of the talonavicular joint and Achilles tendon tenotomy.     

Comparison between a new platelet count drop method PL-11, light transmission aggregometry,VerifyNow aspirin system and thromboelastography for monitoring short-term aspirin effects in healthy individuals

Platelet function has been described by many laboratory assays, and PL-11 is a new point-of-care platelet function analyzer based on platelet count drop method, which counts platelet before and after the addition of agonists in the citrated whole blood samples. The present study sought to compare PL-11 with other three major more established assays, light transmission aggregometry (LTA), VerifyNow? aspirin system and thromboelastography (TEG), for monitoring the short-term aspirin responses in healthy individuals. Ten healthy young men took 100?mg/d aspirin for 3-day treatment. Platelet function was measured via PL-11, LTA, VerifyNow and TEG, respectively. The blood samples were collected at baseline, 2 hour, 1 day during the aspirin treatment and 1 day, 5?±?1 days, 8?±?1 days after the aspirin withdrawal. Moreover, 90 additional healthy subjects were recruited to establish a reference range for PL-11. Platelet function of healthy subjects decreased significantly 2 hours after 100?mg/d aspirin intake and began to recover during 4–6 days after the aspirin withdrawal. Correlations between methods were PL-11 vs. LTA (r?=?0.614, p?<?0.01); PL-11 vs. VerifyNow (r?=?0.829, p?<?0.01); PL-11 vs. TEG (r?=?0.697, p?<?0.001). There was no significant bias between PL-11 and LTA at baseline (bias?=?1.94%, p?=?0.804) using Bland-Altman analysis, while the data of PL-11 were significantly higher than LTA (bias?=?24.02%, p?<?0.001) during the aspirin therapy. The reference range for PL-11 in healthy young individuals was from 66.8 to 90.5% (95%CI). When aspirin low-responsiveness was defined as LTA?>?20%, the cut-off values for each method were, respectively: PL-11?>?50%, VerifyNow?>?533 ARU, TEG?>?60.2%. The results of different platelet function assays were uninterchangeable for monitoring aspirin response and correlations among them were also varied. Correlations among PL-11 and other three major assays suggested the ability of PL-11 to assess the treatment effects of aspirin. But a large cohort study is needed to confirm the cut-off value of aspirin response detected by PL-11.     

Daily skin-to-skin contact in full-term infants and breastfeeding: Secondary outcomes from a randomized controlled trial

This randomized controlled trial evaluated the effect of a 5-week daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) intervention between mothers and their full-term infants, compared with care-as-usual, on exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration during the first post-natal year. Healthy pregnant women (n = 116) from a community sample were enrolled and randomly allocated to the SSC or care-as-usual condition. SSC mothers were requested to provide one daily hour of SSC for the first five post-natal weeks. Twelve months post-partum, mothers indicated the number of exclusive and continued breastfeeding months. Multiple regression analyses were conducted using intention-to-treat, per-protocol and exploratory dose–response frameworks. In intention-to-treat analyses, exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration was not different between groups (exclusive: 3.61 ± 1.99 vs. 3.16 ± 1.77 months; adjusted mean difference 0.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] ?0.33 to 0.89; p = 0.36; continued: 7.98 ± 4.20 vs. 6.75 ± 4.06 months; adjusted mean difference 0.81, 95% CI ?0.46 to 2.08; p = 0.21). In per-protocol analyses, exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration was longer for SSC than care-as-usual dyads (exclusive: 4.89 ± 1.26 vs. 3.25 ± 1.80 months; adjusted mean difference 1.28, 95% CI 0.31–2.24; p = 0.01; continued: 10.81 ± 1.97 vs. 6.98 ± 4.08 months; adjusted mean difference 2.33, 95% CI 0.13–4.54; p = 0.04). Exploratory dose–response effects indicated that more SSC hours predicted longer exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration. This study demonstrates that for the total group, the 5-week daily SSC intervention did not extend exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration. However, for mothers performing a regular daily hour of SSC, this simple and accessible intervention may extend exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration by months. Future studies are required to confirm these promising findings. Trial registration: Netherlands Trial Register (NTR5697).     

A Well-Balanced Positivity-Preserving Quasi-Lagrange Moving Mesh DG Method for the Shallow Water Equations

A high-order, well-balanced, positivity-preserving quasi-Lagrange moving mesh DG method is presented for the shallow water equations with non-flat bottom topography. The well-balance property is crucial to the ability of a scheme to simulate perturbation waves over the lake-at-rest steady state such as waves on a lake or tsunami waves in the deep ocean. The method combines a quasi-Lagrange moving mesh DG method, a hydrostatic reconstruction technique, and a change of unknown variables. The strategies in the use of slope limiting, positivity-preservation limiting, and change of variables to ensure the well-balance and positivity-preserving properties are discussed. Compared to rezoning-type methods, the current method treats mesh movement continuously in time and has the advantages that it does not need to interpolate flow variables from the old mesh to the new one and places no constraint for the choice of a update scheme for the bottom topography on the new mesh. A selection of one- and two-dimensional examples are presented to demonstrate the well-balance property, positivity preservation, and high-order accuracy of the method and its ability to adapt the mesh according to features in the flow and bottom topography.     

Insights from examination of hearts from adults dying suddenly to the understanding of congenital cardiac malformations

Congenital heart disease is a rare but important finding in adults who experience sudden death. Examination of the congenitally malformed heart has historically been considered esoteric and best left to those with expertise. The Cardiac Risk in the Young cardiovascular pathology laboratory based at St George's University of London has now received over 6,000 cases. Of these, 21 congenitally malformed hearts were retained for research and educational purposes. Hearts were assessed using sequential segmental analysis, and causes of death were adjudicated based on thorough macroscopic examination and histology. Congenital malformations that were encountered included atrial septal defects, ventricular septal defects, tetralogy of Fallot, and transposition of the great arteries in both its regular and congenitally corrected variants. Findings also included hearts with mirror-imaged and isomeric atrial appendages. Direct causes of death included myocardial fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, and hemorrhage. A small but notable proportion did not reveal a substrate for arrhythmia, raising the question of whether the terminal event was due to the congenital heart disease itself, or an underlying channelopathy. Here, we demonstrate the value of simple sequential segmental analysis in describing and categorizing the cases, with the concept of the “morphological method” serving to identify the distinguishing features of the cardiac components. Clin. Anat. 33:394–404, 2020. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

顶空气相色谱-质谱法测定布南色林原料药中遗传毒性杂质

目的：建立顶空气相色谱-质谱法测定布南色林原料药中甲磺酸甲酯、甲磺酸乙酯和甲磺酸异丙酯3种遗传毒性杂质含量的方法。方法：采用顶空气相色谱-质谱法，以甲磺酸丁酯为内标，按内标标准曲线法进行甲磺酸甲酯、甲磺酸乙酯和甲磺酸异丙酯的含量测定。色谱条件：DB-WAX毛细管色谱柱（30 m×0.25 mm×0.25 μm）；程序升温，初始柱温为40℃，维持3 min，升温速率为30℃·min^-1，终止温度150℃，保持2 min；进样口温度为110℃；载气（He）流速为0.6 mL·min^-1；进样量为1 mL；进样方式为分流进样，分流比为20：1。质谱条件：电子轰击离子源（EI），扫描方式为选择性离子检测；离子源温度为200℃；接口温度为150℃；电子能量为70 eV；溶剂延迟1 min。结果：3种杂质成分之间的分离度均大于2.0；甲磺酸甲酯、甲磺酸乙酯、甲磺酸异丙酯检测质量浓度线性范围均为0.025~3.0 μg·mL^-1（r ≥ 0.998 5）；精密度、稳定性、重复性试验的RSD<5%；加样回收率分别为93.40%~101.40%（RSD为3.2%，n=9）、92.80%~99.70%（RSD为2.5%，n=9）和96.30%~100.75%（RSD为1.6%，n=9）。结论：该方法简便、准确、灵敏、迅速，可用于布南色林原料药中3种遗传毒性杂质的测定。     

在手术室护理教学中应用目标教学法的效果观察

目的探讨目标教学法在手术室护理教学中的应用效果。方法选取2017年10月-2018年10月期间80名手术室的实习护生,按照完全随机对照原则分组,对照组(n=40)采用传统带教法,观察组(n=40)采用目标教学法,分析技能操作考核成绩、护生对教学方式的满意度评分以及教师对学生表现的满意度评分。结果观察组技能操作考核成绩、护生对教学方式的满意度评分以及教师对学生表现的满意度评分高于对照组,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。结论在手术室护理教学中应用目标教学法效果较好,有助于护生将理论与实践更好地结合,进而有效提高实习质量以及护生的临床思维能力。