Prevalence of bowlegs among child and adolescent soccer players.

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the interactions of sports-related demands and human body, in particular on musculoskeletal features, during growth. Focusing on the relationship between soccer and lower limb alignment, we examined the hypothesis that varus knee deviation is more prevalent among high-performance pediatric and adolescent soccer players. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study with focused sampling. SETTING: First league sports clubs. PARTICIPANTS: 106 male child/adolescent soccer players aged 10 to 21 years and 68 age-matched tennis players. INTERVENTIONS: All athletes completed a demographic questionnaire and underwent physical examinations, which included height, weight, generalized laxity, knee, ankle, foot and spine axis, hip range of motion, tibial torsion, Q angle, foot navicular height, and progression angle. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENT: Varus/valgus axis was determined by the intercondylar intermalleolar distance while standing. Soccer and tennis players were compared on knee axis and other outcome variables by analysis of covariance, adjusting for age and by t-tests within age groups. RESULTS: A significantly higher prevalence of knee varus was found among the soccer players compared to that among the tennis players. The difference in intracondylar distance was statistically significant after the age of 13 years (P < 0.001). In addition, compared to tennis players, soccer players had higher foot arches, decreased hip external rotation and increased external tibial torsion. CONCLUSIONS: Varus knee axis deviation was more common among children and adolescent soccer players than among tennis players. The prevalence was more pronounced among players aged 13 years or older. Further research is needed to explore the rationale of this phenomenon.     

Neuropsychological changes following electrical injury.

The clinical presentation of electrical injury commonly involves physical, cognitive, and emotional complaints. Neuropsychological studies, including case reports, have indicated that electrical injury (EI) survivors may experience a broad range of impaired neuropsychological functions, although this has not been clarified through controlled investigation. In this study, we describe the neuropsychological test findings in a series of 29 EI patients carefully screened and matched to a group of 29 demographically similar healthy electricians. Participants were matched by their estimated premorbid intellectual ability. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to assess group differences in the following neuropsychological domains: attention and mental speed, working memory, verbal memory, visual memory, and motor skills. EI patients performed significantly worse on composite measures of attention/mental speed and motor skills, which could not be explained by demographic differences, injury parameters, litigation status, or mood disturbance. Results suggest that cognitive changes do occur in patients suffering from electrical injury.     

Xanthogranulomatous orchitis: Review of the published work and report of one case

Xanthogranulomatous orchitis is an extremely rare inflammatory non-neoplastic destructive lesion of the testis. We report a 44-year-old man who presented with right scrotal swelling and two discharging sinuses. Testicular tumor markers were normal. Scrotal ultrasound showed heterogeneous testicular areas and irregular margin of the tunica. Surgical exploration revealed infected, unhealthy testicular tissue with necrosis and tumor-like lesion. Orchidectomy was done and histopathology showed xanthogranulomatous orchitis.     

Maturation of long-term potentiation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of the freely moving rat

The ability of the perforant path/dentate granule cell synapse of the hippocampal formation to establish and maintain enhanced levels of synaptic transmission in response to tetanization (long-term potentiation, LTP) was investigated in freely moving rats at 15, 30, and 90 days of age. Measures of (1) the slope of the population excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP), and (2) the population spike amplitude (PSA) obtained before, and at several times following tetanization, were used to evaluate the magnitude and duration of LTP as a function of age. Significant enhancement of both EPSP slope and PSA measures was obtained from animals of all three ages in response to perforant path tetanization. The initial degree of enhancement was essentially the same across the age groups, ranging from +27% to +38% of pretetanization levels for EPSP slope measures and +60% to +75% of pretetanization levels for PSA measures, obtained 15 min after tetanization. The duration of this enhancement obtained from animals of the preweaning group was significantly longer than that obtained from either 30- or 90-day-old animals. Enhanced measures of both EPSP slope and PSA decayed to baseline levels in these older animals 18 to 24 h after tetanization, while animals tetanized at 15 days of age maintained potentiated levels of both measures for a period of 5 days following tetanization. Tetanization of 15-day-old animals resulted in a significant reduction in the latency to EPSP onset without affecting the time-based relationships among the other measured parameters, which included latency of the population spike onset, population spike minimum, and population spike offset. Tetanization had no effect on the latency measure of any of these parameters in either of the two older age groups. The primarily postnatal development of the dentate granule cell population suggests that both functionally immature GABAergic modulation of granule cell activity and the differential development of components of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor complex may be involved in the age-related differences in the induction and expression of the LTP phenomenon. This study represents the first developmental characterization of LTP in the perforant path/dentate granule cell synapse in freely moving rats during early development. The results indicate that LTP can be reliably established and maintained in behaving rats as young as 15 days of age. Whereas the degree of potentiation at this age is equivalent to that obtained from juveniles and young adults, the duration of the effect significantly outlasts that obtained from older animals in which development of the dentate gyrus is more functionally mature. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Impaired in-vitro proliferation of hemopoietic precursors in HIV-1-infected subjects

Patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and persistent lymphadenopathy syndrome (LAS) display significant hematological abnormalities of one or more cell lineages. In order to understand the pathophysiologic mechanisms leading to these abnormalities we studied the proliferation capacity of pluripotent and committed hemopoietic precursors using in-vitro colony assays. Anemia, leukopenia and thrombopenia were relatively frequent findings in HIV-infected subjects irrespectively of the patients' clinical status. The colony growth capacity of AIDS patients' GM-CFU and BFU-E was significantly decreased whereas no GEMM-CFU colonies could be obtained. There was no correlation between the number of BFU-E and GM-CFU colony number and the hemoglobin or the absolute number of polynuclear cells, respectively. The plating efficiency of both committed and pluripotent hematopoietic precursors from HIV infected patients could not be enhanced when additional exogenous recombinant GM-CSF, human interleukin 3 or erythropoietin were added in contrast to normal patients' cells. In addition, the impaired colony growth of these precursors could not be restored after adherent or T-cell depletion or the addition of normal allogenic irradiated adherent or/and T cells. Since this colony growth abnormality was also detected in HIV seropositive asymptomatic subjects our findings strongly suggest that the in-vitro growth of hematopoietic precursors is affected early after HIV-1 infection.     

Brain abscess in Saudi Arabia

There are significant variations among countries in the incidence of brain abscess. We report here 26 cases of brain abscess treated at the Neurosurgery Department of King Faisal University and Dammam Central Hospital Saudi Arabia over a six year period (1982–1988). This is 2.3% of total admissions to the two neurosurgery departments serving a population of approximately 1.2 million in the same period.Young males were most often affected (M/F ratio 3.3:1; 31% were less than 15 years old, 46% aged between 15–39 years, and 23% older than 40 years). Streptococcus was found to be the most common microorganism (38.4%). Mixed infection was seen in 15.3%, and sterile abscesses were found in 11.5% of the patients after aerobic and anaerobic cultures of the pus. Chronic otitis media and paranasal sinusitis predisposed the patients to abscess formation in 57.6% of the cases. The temporo-parietal area was the commonest site. Epilepsy was a complication in 30.7% of our patients, and the mortality rate was 15.3%.     

Correlation of carotid artery stump pressure with a palpable carotid artery pulse.

The carotid artery stump pressure has been used as a criterion for selective placement of a shunt during carotid endarterectomy. The purpose of our study was to correlate the carotid stump pressure with the presence or absence of a palpable pulse in the carotid stump. One hundred twenty-two consecutive patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy under general anesthesia were checked for a palpable pulse in the internal carotid stump with subsequent measurements of the stump pressure. Of these patients, 88 had a palpable pulse and a pressure greater than or equal to 44 mmHg. The remaining 34 had a absent pulse and a stump pressure of 40 mmHg or less. Shunts were not used in those patients with a palpable pulse and no history of previous stroke or contralateral carotid occlusion. There were no serious neurological complications. We conclude that the presence of a palpable pulse in the carotid stump is a sufficient criterion for performing carotid endarterectomy without a shunt in those patients with no previous history of stroke or contralateral carotid occlusion.     

Carotid Stent-Supported Angioplasty via Radiobrachial Route

Endovascular stent-supported angioplasty is a treatment option for atherosclerotic disease of the cervical internal carotid artery in high-risk patients. The traditional transfemoral approach is not suitable for patients who suffer from common femoral artery or abdominal aorta atheropathy. We report a case of carotid stent deployment using the radial route in a 68-year-old man with type B aortic dissection, having severe right internal carotid artery origin stenosis, presenting with ipsilateral retinal ischemic events. Technical aspects of carotid stenting via the radial approach are described and the related literature is discussed.     

Post-traumatic stress disorder among the injured of theintifada

The current study aimed to assess the prevalence of PTSD among Palestinians who sustained serious bodily injuries during theintifada, as well as to delineate factors having an effect on the development and attenuation of PTSD symptomatology. Results indicated evidence of high prevalence of PTSD among the injured. No significant differences in PTSD prevalence for demographic, situational, and trauma-related variables were found except for the age factor. Prevalence of PTSD among adolescents was significantly higher than among adults. It seemed that the injury itself was so intensely overwhelming that the other variables were overshadowed. Implications for further research and stress management techniques were discussed.