Does the video head impulse test replace caloric testing in the assessment of patients with chronic dizziness? A systematic review and meta-analysis

IntroductionCaloric testing is the most frequently used test to assess peripheral vestibular function since the beginning of the 20th century. However, the video head impulse test, vHIT, has gained prominence in the field of neurotology, as it is a faster examination, easier to perform and less uncomfortable for the patient.ObjectiveTo compare, through systematic review and meta-analysis, the proportion of altered cases between vHIT tests and caloric testing in patients with chronic dizziness, in addition to assessing the sensitivity and specificity of vHIT, with caloric testing as the gold standard.MethodsThe literature search was carried out in the PubMed, Scopus, BVS-Bireme, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane and ProQuest indexed databases, with no restrictions regarding the publication period. All articles that contained the results of the two tests were included in the evaluation of patients with dizziness. Two researchers independently conducted data selection and extraction from the studies, strictly following the inclusion and exclusion criteria defined in the research protocol. In case of disagreement during the selection, a discussion was carried out with a third evaluator.ResultsEleven of the 1293 initial articles met the eligibility criteria and were analyzed. 2670 patients were evaluated, of which 1112 (41.6%) were males and 1558 (58.4%) females, with a mean age of 51.6 years. The proportion of altered results in the vHIT was 21% (95%CI 9% –33%), and 55% in the caloric testing (95%CI 43% –67%).ConclusionThe vHIT does not substitute for caloric testing. The tests are complementary in assessing the patient with dizziness, as they describe the tonotopy of the ampullary crest at different frequency ranges of stimulation. In chronic cases, the vHIT has a low sensitivity and high diagnostic specificity in comparison to caloric testing.     

Compositional analyses reveal correlations between taxon-level gut bacterial abundance and peripheral T cell marker expression in African infants

ABSTRACT

Although exclusive breastfeeding has been linked to lower rates of postnatal HIV transmission compared to nonexclusive breastfeeding, mechanisms underlying this are unclear. Across a longitudinally sampled cohort of South African infants, we showed that exclusively breastfed (EBF) infants had altered gut bacterial communities when compared to nonexclusively breastfed (NEBF) infants, as well as reduced peripheral CD4 + T cell activation and lowered chemokine and chemokine receptor expression in the oral mucosa. We further demonstrated that the relative abundance of key taxa was correlated with peripheral CD4 + T cell activation. Here, we supplement those findings by using compositional data analyses to identify shifts in the abundance of several Bifidobacteria strains relative to select strains of Escherichia, Bacteroides, and others that are associated with the transition to NEBF. We illustrate that the abundance ratio of these taxa is tightly correlated with feeding modality and is a strong predictor of peripheral T cell activation. More broadly, we discuss our study in the context of novel developments and explore future directions for the field.     

高效液相色谱串联质谱法测定氯沙坦钾中的遗传毒性杂质N-亚硝基-N-甲基-4-氨基丁酸

目的建立了一种高效液相色谱-三重四极杆串联质谱法,对氯沙坦钾原料药中遗传毒性杂质N-亚硝基-N-甲基-4-氨基丁酸(NMBA)进行测定。方法色谱柱为岛津Shim-pack XR-ODSⅡ色谱柱(2.0 mm×150 mm,2.2μm),流动相为0.1%甲酸水溶液(A)和甲醇(B),进行梯度洗脱,流速0.3 mL·min^-1,柱温为40℃,采用ESI离子化-三重四极杆质谱多反应监测(MRM)正离子模式检测,碰撞电压分别为-11,-13和-13 V,碰撞气氩气270 kPa,NMBA的离子对分别为m/z 147.15→117.10,147.15→87.10和147.15→44.10。结果该方法中NMBA在1~100 ng·mL^-1内线性关系良好,日内和日间的保留时间和峰面积的重复性良好(RSD均小于1.10%,n=6和n=18),低、中、高3个浓度的平均回收率在94.40%~98.04%之间。结论本方法简单方便,可快速有效的对氯沙坦钾原料药中NMBA进行限度检查并实现定量分析。     

The role of cardiopulmonary exercise testing in evaluating children with exercise induced dyspnoea

Exercise induced dyspnoea (EID) is a common manifestation in children and adolescents. Although EID is commonly attributed to exercise induced bronchoconstriction, several conditions other than asthma can cause EID in otherwise healthy children and adolescents. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) offers a non-invasive comprehensive assessment of the cardiovascular, ventilatory and metabolic responses to exercise and is a powerful diagnostic and prognostic tool. CPET is a reproducible, non-invasive form of testing that allows for comparison against age- and gender-specific norms. CPET can assess the child’s exercise capacity, determine the limiting factors associated with this, and be used to prescribe individualised interventions. EID can occur due to asthma, exercise induced laryngeal obstruction, breathing pattern disorders, chest wall restriction and cardiovascular pathology among other causes. Differentiating between these varied causes is important if effective therapy is to be initiated and quality of life improved in subjects with EID.     

Prospective comparative study of intraoperative “Towel clip test” and “Vertical patella test” assessing lateral retinaculum tightness in patients undergoing TKA

BackgroundProper patellar tracking is one of the most important aspect of TKA to ensure good functional outcome. A patellar tracking problem noted intraoperatively serves as a warning sign and should prompt the surgeon to reassess position of each component. Various tests are there to assess lateral retinaculum tightness viz. "No thumb test", "Towel clip test". A new test "Vertical patella test" is described to assess lateral retinaculum tightness. A study was conducted to assess the effectiveness, correlation and validity of two techniques.Materials & MethodsPatients >50 years of age and with diagnosis of Osteoarthritis knee having less than 30 varus and flexion deformity going in for primary TKA were selected with a sample size of 100 knees in a tertiary care centre. Revision cases or patients with flexion contracture more than 30, complex knee surgery; with pre existing patellar tilt were excluded from study.ResultsResults of both tests were found to correlate in 75% of case with sensitivity of 96.65% and specificity of 75.00%. Kappa came out to be 0.634 which shows good agreement of vertical patella test and towel clip test. Result was computed using excel and SPSS and was found to be significant with p value< 0.05. Lateral retinaculum release was done in 8 knees.ConclusionsVertical patella test correlates with towel clip test, is easy to perform and saves time. The limitation of our study was small sample size.     

Developing a Brief Neuropsychological Battery for Early Diagnosis of Cognitive Impairment

ObjectivesEarly diagnosis of cognitive impairment is increasingly emphasized in the literature to facilitate timely preventive interventions. Although bedside cognitive tests such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) are widely used for such early diagnostic purposes, they may not have comparable performance to a full neuropsychological battery (FNB) in diagnosing early cognitive impairment. This study investigated whether a small subset of neuropsychological tests can be added on to MoCA to match its performance to that of the FNB in discriminating mild cognitive impairment and dementia (MCI/dementia) from normal cognition.DesignCross-sectional diagnostic study.SettingAlzheimer's Disease Centers across the United States.ParticipantsOlder participants (≥50 years) who completed MoCA and the FNB (N = 9187).MeasuresThe study sample was split into two: the derivation sample (n = 1837) was used to develop a brief neuropsychological battery that best discriminated MCI/dementia (using the best-subset approach with 10-fold cross-validation); while the validation sample (n = 7350) verified its actual performance in discriminating MCI/dementia.ResultsA 3-item neuropsychological battery was identified, comprising MoCA, Benson Complex Figure Recall, and Craft Story 21 Delayed Recall. It had excellent performance in discriminating MCI/dementia from normal cognition (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC] 90.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 89.2%-90.7%), which was comparable to that of the FNB (AUROC 88.4%, 95% CI 87.6%-89.2%). By contrast, MoCA alone had significantly worse AUROC (86.9%, 95% CI 86.0%-87.7%) than that of the FNB.Conclusions/ImplicationsUsing rigorous methods, this study developed a brief neuropsychological battery that maintained the brevity of a bedside cognitive test, while rivaling the diagnostic performance of an FNB in early cognitive impairment. This brief battery offers a viable alternative when the FNB is needed but cannot be feasibly administered in nonspecialty clinics. It can have a wider health systems effect of improving patients’ access to accurate diagnosis in early cognitive impairment and facilitating timely interventions to delay the progression of cognitive impairment.     

Ames试验检测三硝基甲苯及其还原代谢产物的诱变性

应用Ａｍｅｓ试验检测系统观察了三硝基甲苯及其还原代谢产物４－羟氨基－２，６－二硝基甲苯（４－ＨＡ），４－氨基－２，６－二硝基甲苯（４－Ａ），２－氨基－４，６－二硝基甲苯（２－Ａ）和２，４－二氨基－６－硝基甲苯（２，４－ＤＡ）的诱变活性，实验结果显示，三硝基甲苯及其代谢产物具有明显的致突变作用，４－Ａ的直接诱变活性最强，而且移码型诱变性更为显著，在微粒体酶系统的参与下，ＴＮＴ的诱变活性增强，其代谢产     

928株革兰阴性杆菌耐药性监测

目的：了解青岛地区临床分离的重要革兰阴性杆菌的耐药情况以指导合理用药。方法：2001年青岛3家医院临床分离的5种革兰阴性杆菌用Kirby-Bauer法进行药敏试验。结果：5种病原菌均占3家医院革兰阴性杆菌分离率的前5位，大肠埃希菌对氟喹诺酮类药物的耐药率达60％－87％，细菌对亚胺培南均呈高度敏感，但铜绿假单胞菌耐亚胺培南株占25．8％，头孢他啶的抗菌活性是三代头孢菌素中最高的；复方酶抑制剂表现出良好的抗菌活性。结论：细菌耐药问题仍是目前临床的严重问题，地域性的耐药性监测是必要的。     

103例角膜溃疡的病因和病原及药物敏感试验的统计分析

对１９９５年１—１２月间我院门诊１０３例角膜溃疡的病因、病原和药物敏感试验进行统计分析。病因：外伤５９例（５７．２８％），继发感染３４例（３３．０１％），原因不明８例（７．７７％），戴接触镜２例（１．９４％）。病原：真菌３５例（３３．９８％），绿脓杆菌１８例（１７．４８％），金黄色葡萄球菌１５例（１４．５６％），表皮葡萄球菌９例（８．７４％），淋球菌２例（１．９４％）。对１９例真菌性角膜溃疡同时进行细菌培养，有７例为混合感染，占３６．８４％。对几种主要检出菌的药物敏感试验表明：它们对普通抗菌素均可产生一定的耐药性