改良混合痔切除术的临床研究

为探讨改良混合痔切除术的临床疗效，本研究将40例重度混合痔患者随机分为两组，一组予改良混合痔切除术（治疗组）治疗，一组予传统外剥内扎术（对照组）治疗，对比分析两组患者疗效、术后并发症、创面愈合时间、药比、住院费用、住院时问及患者满意度。结果显示，两组疗效、创面愈合时间、药比及肛门狭窄和尿潴留方面差异均无统计学意义，P〉0．05；但在住院费用、住院时间、患者满意度及后遗皮赘、肛缘水肿、创面出血、术区疼痛方面差异有均统计学意义，P〈0．05，且治疗组优于对照组。结果表明，改良混合痔切除术治疗重度混合痔疗效确切，术后并发症少，不影响肛门功能和外观，患者满意度高，值得临床推广。     

骶神经刺激疗法治疗混合痔术后疼痛的疗效观察

目的 观察骶神经刺激疗法(SNS)治疗混合痔术后疼痛的临床疗效.方法 选取2010年1月至2012年12月在广东省中医院肛肠科住院手术治疗的患者,随机分为SNS组和氨酚曲马多组,每组40例.对比分析两组患者疼痛效果评分、止痛时间等指标差异.结果 SNS组患者治疗后的疼痛持续时间和止痛平均起效时间均显著低于氨酚曲马多组,疼痛VAS评分差值显著大于氨酚曲马多组,差异有统计学意义(P＜0.05).结论 SNS对痔术后疼痛疗效确切,实用性强,更适合于术后中、重度疼痛.     

Interactive design of patient-oriented video-games for rehabilitation: concept and application

Purpose: Serious video-games are innovative tools used to train the motor skills of subjects affected by neurological disorders. They are often developed to train a specific type of patients and the rules of the game are standardly defined. A system that allows the therapist to design highly patient-oriented video-games, without specific informatics skills, is proposed.

Method: The system consists of one personal computer, two screens, a Kinect? sensor and a specific software developed here for the design of the video-games. It was tested with the collaboration of three therapists and six patients, and two questionnaires were filled in by each patient to evaluate the appreciation of the rehabilitative sessions.

Results: The therapists learned easily how to use the system, and no serious difficulties were encountered by the patients. The questionnaires showed an overall good satisfaction by the patients and highlighted the key-role of the therapist in involving the patients during the rehabilitative session.

Conclusions: It was found that the proposed system is effective for developing patient-oriented video-games for rehabilitation. The two main advantages are that the therapist is allowed to (i) develop personalized video-games without informatics skills and (ii) adapt the game settings to patients affected by different pathologies.

• Implications for rehabilitation

• Virtual reality and serious video games offer the opportunity to transform the traditional therapy into a more pleasant experience, allowing patients to train their motor and cognitive skills.

• Both the therapists and the patients should be involved in the development of rehabilitative solutions to be highly patient-oriented.

• A system for the design of rehabilitative games by the therapist is described and the feedback of three therapists and six patients is reported.

     

Virtual Reality Rehabilitation With Functional Electrical Stimulation Improves Upper Extremity Function in Patients With Chronic Stroke: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Study

Objective

To compare virtual reality (VR) combined with functional electrical stimulation (FES) with cyclic FES for improving upper extremity function and health-related quality of life in patients with chronic stroke.

Functional characterization of canine lymphocyte subsets

Summary Functional characterization of subsets of T lymphocytes is essential for transplantation studies in dogs, as it is in other species. We studied the function of T cells separated by two mouse monoclonal antibodies recognizing complementary subsets — an antibody directed to canine T cells (MdT-P1) with an up-regulating function, and an antibody directed to human CD 8 (MT811) that cross-reacts with down-regulating canine T cells. Immunorosetting with sheep red blood cells and Percoll gradient allowed us to study depleted and enriched fractions. Their function was tested in mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC), cell-mediated cytotoxicity (CML), and coculture with B cells in a hemolytic plaque assay (PFC). In MLC, MdT-P1-positive cells showed a high proliferative response, and MT811-positive cells responded poorly to allogeneic cells. Vice versa, MT811-negative cells responded strongly, and MdT-P1-negative cells were poor responders but strong stimulators. Effector cells of CML were separated following 8 days of culture and prior to mixing with target cells. Enriched and depleted fractions with either antibody showed low cytotoxic activity as compared with unseparated cells. When added to unseparated effector cells MT811-positive cells suppressed cytotoxicity. B cells were obtained by resetting with staphylococcal protein A (SPA). Their immunoglobulin production was studied following 6 days of culture stimulated by pokeweed mitogen in a reverse hemolytic plaque assay. Again, MT811-positive cells added to the culture suppressed, and MT811-negative cells enhanced immunoglobulin production. In conclusion, immunorosetting with two monoclonal antibodies allowed us to distinguish subpopulations of canine T cells with up-regulating (helper/inducer) from those with down-regulating (suppressor) activity.This work was supported by theWilhelm-Sander-Stiftung     

Mixed Infection with Two Types of Hepatitis C Virus Is Probably a Rare Event

Summary A search for the simultaneous presence of two hepatitis C virus (HCV) types in sera of a group of chronically infected intravenous drug users, hemodialysis patients and hemophiliacs from Sweden and Russia was performed with two genotyping methods based on the use of type-specific primers from core and NS4 regions of the viral genome. An important feature of NS4 based assay is that type-specific primers are used in both rounds of nested PCR, thus providing the possibility of the identification not only of the abundant type, but also of the minor HCV type present in a particular serum. The experiments, however, did not reveal the simultaneous presence of two or more HCV types in any of the 40 samples. These results suggest that the frequency of mixed infections in serum with different HCV types is very low even in high-risk groups, at least in the geographic region studied. Received: January 3, 1999 · Accepted: July 20, 1999     

Mixed Tumors,Myoepitheliomas, and Oncocytomas of the Soft Tissues Are Likely Members of the Same Family: A Clinicopathologic and Ultrastructural Study

Four diagnostically unusual soft tissue tumors are presented. All lesions were of consistent size and long duration. Histologically, one lesion was analogous to mixed tumors of the usual sites (i.e., salivary glands), one lesion was totally spindled, and the two other lesions both had oncocytic appearances ( epithelioid and spindle biphasic pattern in a case, purely epithelioid in the other). Immunohistochemically, the mixed tumor was positive for vimentin, cytokeratins, S-100 protein, and focally for EMA. The purely spindled tumor exhibited immunoreactivity for vimentin, actins, S-100 protein, EMA (focally), and GFAP. The oncocytic biphasic tumor was positive for mitochondrial antigen, vimentin, and actins. The purely epithelioid oncocytic neoplasm was immunoreactive only for mitochondrial antigen and vimentin. Ultrastructurally, in the epithelial-like portion of the first (mixed) tumor, peripheral arrays of contractile filaments were detected along with well-developed desmosomes. In the second (spindled) case, peripheral contractile filaments and attenuated desmosomes were also seen. In the third case, a huge number of mitochondria, some desmosomes, and actin-type microfilaments were found. In the fourth case, desmosomes and punctate subplasmalemmal densities, in addition to numerous mitochondria, were documented. In all cases an external basal lamina were present, which was discontinuous in the first three cases and almost continuous in the fourth. These tumors were respectively designated as mixed tumor, myoepithelioma of the classic type, myoepithelioma of oncocytic type with biphasic cell architecture, and true oncocytoma. So far, all tumors have followed benign clinical courses (median follow up: 12 months). Comparisons with similar tumors of other sites are drawn, and suggestions for considering all of them as members of the same myoepithelial-derived tumor family are given.     

Variance stabilization for computing and comparing grand mean waveforms in MEG and EEG

Grand means of time‐varying signals (waveforms) across subjects in magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) are commonly computed as arithmetic averages and compared between conditions, for example, by subtraction. However, the prerequisite for these operations, homogeneity of the variance of the waveforms in time, and for most common parametric statistical tests also between conditions, is rarely met. We suggest that the heteroscedasticity observed instead results because waveforms may differ by factors and additive terms and follow a mixed model. We propose to apply the asinh‐transformation to stabilize the variance in such cases. We demonstrate the homogeneous variance and the normal distributions of data achieved by this transformation using simulated waveforms, and we apply it to real MEG data and show its benefits. The asinh‐transformation is thus an essential and useful processing step prior to computing and comparing grand mean waveforms in MEG and EEG.     

Efficacy of second generation antipsychotics in treating acute mixed episodes in bipolar disorder: A meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials

Background

The literature on the treatment mixed episodes in Bipolar Disorder [BD] is sparse. Second generation antipsychotics [SGA] have documented efficacy in mania, but not mixed episodes. The objective of this meta-analysis was to ascertain the efficacy of SGA, either as mono- and/or adjunctive therapy, in the treatment of acute mixed episodes of BD, compared to placebo.

Methods

A MEDLINE search for English language publications of randomized controlled trials [RCTs] comparing SGA with placebo in the treatment of an acute manic/mixed episode of BD, during the period 1990–2012, was performed using the terms ‘atypical antipsychotics’, ‘SGA’, ‘mixed episodes’, ‘dysphoric mania’ and each SGA independently. 9 RCTs reporting data on 1289 mixed episode patients treated with aripiprazole, asenapine, olanzapine, paliperidone-ER, risperidone, and ziprasidone, either as monotherapy or as adjunctive therapy, versus placebo, for 3–6 weeks, were included in the meta-analysis. We extracted data on the number of patients, SGA, duration of study and mean change in mania and depression scores from baseline to endpoint. Standardized mean difference between SGA and placebo for the mean baseline-to-endpoint change in mania and depression rating scores was calculated, with a 95% confidence limit.

Results

SGA, either alone or in combination with mood stabilizers, had superior efficacy in treating manic symptoms of mixed episodes compared to placebo (−0.41, 95% CI −0.53, −0.30; overall effect p<0.00001). SGA were equally effective for manic symptoms in mixed episodes and pure mania (p=0.99). SGA had superior efficacy in treating depressive symptoms of mixed episodes (−0.30, 95% CI −0.47, −0.13; p<0.001) compared to placebo in two trials reporting this information.

Limitations

Thirteen relevant studies could not be included as data for mixed-episodes were not presented separately.

Conclusions

SGA are effective in treating acute mixed episodes of BD, with predominant manic symptoms. Their efficacy in treating depressed mixed episodes remains unclear.