Hip Displacement in Cerebral Palsy: The Role of Surveillance

IntroductionHip displacement is common in cerebral palsy (CP) and is related to the severity of neurological and functional impairment. It is a silent, but progressive disease, and can result in significant morbidity and decreased quality of life, if left untreated. The pathophysiology of hip displacement in CP is a combination of hip flexor-adductor muscle spasticity, abductor muscle weakness, and delayed weight-bearing, resulting in proximal femoral deformities and progressive acetabular dysplasia. Due to a lack of symptoms in the early stages of hip displacement, the diagnosis is easily missed. Awareness of this condition and regular surveillance by clinical examination and serial radiographs of the hips are the key to early diagnosis and treatment.Hip surveillance programmesSeveral population-based studies from around the world have demonstrated that universal hip surveillance in children with CP allows early detection of hip displacement and appropriate early intervention, with a resultant decrease in painful dislocations. Global hip surveillance models are based upon the patients’ age, functional level determined by the Gross Motor Function Classification system (GMFCS), gait classification, standardized clinical exam, and radiographic indices such as the migration percentage (MP), as critical indicators of progressive hip displacement.ConclusionDespite 25 years of evidence showing the efficacy of established hip surveillance programmes, there is poor awareness among healthcare professionals in India about the importance of regular hip surveillance in children with CP. There is a need for professional organizations to develop evidence-based guidelines for hip surveillance which are relevant to the Indian context.     

Effect of deuteration on the single dose pharmacokinetic properties and postoperative analgesic activity of methadone

Although methadone is effective in the management of acute pain, the complexity of its absorption-distribution-metabolism-excretion profile limits its use as an opioid of choice for perioperative analgesia. Because deuteration is known to improve the pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and toxicological properties of some drugs, here we characterized the single dose pharmacokinetic properties and post-operative analgesic efficacy of d₉-methadone.The pharmacokinetic profiles of d₉-methadone and methadone administered intravenously to CD-1 male mice revealed that deuteration leads to a 5.7- and 4.4-fold increase in the area under the time-concentration curve and maximum concentration in plasma, respectively, as well as reduction in clearance (0.9 ± 0.3 L/h/kg vs 4.7 ± 0.8 L/h/kg). The lower brain-to-plasma ratio of d₉-methadone compared to that of methadone (0.35 ± 0.12 vs 2.05 ± 0.62) suggested that deuteration decreases the transfer of the drug across the blood-brain barrier. The estimated LD₅₀ value for a single intravenous dose of d₉-methadone was 2.1-fold higher than that for methadone. Moreover, d₉-methadone outperformed methadone in the efficacy against postoperative pain by primarily activating peripheral opioid receptors. Collectively, these data suggest that the replacement of three hydrogen atoms in three methyl groups of methadone altered its pharmacokinetic properties, improved safety, and enhanced its analgesic efficacy.     

A High Order Bound Preserving Finite Difference Linear Scheme for Incompressible Flows

We propose a high order finite difference linear scheme combined with a high order bound preserving maximum-principle-preserving (MPP) flux limiter to solve the incompressible flow system. For such problem with highly oscillatory structure but not strong shocks, our approach seems to be less dissipative and much less costly than a WENO type scheme, and has high resolution due to a Hermite reconstruction. Spurious numerical oscillations can be controlled by the weak MPP flux limiter. Numerical tests are performed for the Vlasov-Poisson system, the 2D guiding-center model and the incompressible Euler system. The comparison between the linear and WENO type schemes, with and without the MPP flux limiter, will demonstrate the good performance of our proposed approach.     

Recall of emotional and neutral words and paragraphs in traumatic brain injury

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in verbal recall deficits and impaired processing of emotion encoded in facial appearance, prosody and the linguistic content of messages. Emotion facilitates memory (emotional memory advantage) for non-brain injured (NBI) individuals but the impact of emotion on verbal recall for linguistically encoded stimuli in TBI has not been explored.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of stimulus emotional content on verbal recall of words and paragraphs in TBI compared to NBI individuals.

Methods and procedures: Six 10-item lists, each with five emotional and five neutral words, and six paragraphs (three emotional, three neutral) were counterbalanced and presented in random order to 20 individuals with TBI and 44 NBI. The number of words from lists and the number of content units from paragraphs were compared for the two groups.

Outcomes and results: The NBI participants recalled more words from the lists and content units from the paragraphs than the individuals with TBI. Both groups recalled significantly more emotional than neutral words. NBI but not TBI participants had significantly greater recall for information in paragraphs with emotional content.

Conclusions: Participants with TBI showed impaired recall of words and paragraph content. Emotion facilitated word and paragraph content recall for neurotypical individuals but emotional memory advantage was limited to words for the TBI participants.     

奥扎格雷联合低分子肝素钙治疗脑血栓的临床研究

目的：对应用低分子肝素钙与奥扎格雷联合对患有脑血栓疾病的患者实施治疗的临床效果进行研究。方法整群选择在该院2012年12月—2014年12月就诊的患有脑血栓疾病的患者86例，随机分为对照组和治疗组，每组43例。采用奥扎格雷对对照组患者实施治疗；采用低分子肝素钙与奥扎格雷联合对治疗组患者实施治疗。对比神经功能缺损评分在药物治疗前后的变化幅度、脑神经功能恢复正常时间和脑血栓药物治疗计划实施总时间、脑血栓疾病药物治疗效果、用药期间的不良反应人数。结果治疗组患者神经功能缺损评分在药物治疗前后的变化幅度明显大于对照组；脑神经功能恢复正常时间（9.66±2.41）d和脑血栓药物治疗计划实施总时间（13.28±2.14）d明显短于对照组（13.62±3.47）、（17.39±3.20）d；脑血栓疾病药物治疗效果（总有效率90.6%）明显优于对照组（总有效率69.8%）；用药期间的不良反应人数（1例）明显少于对照组（8例）。结论应用低分子肝素钙与奥扎格雷联合对患有脑血栓疾病的患者实施治疗的临床效果非常明显。     

Packed red blood cell transfusion (PRBC) attenuates intestinal blood flow responses to feedings in pre-term neonates with normalization at 24 hours

Objective: To determine whether packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusion affects post-prandial superior mesenteric artery blood flow velocities (SMA BFVs) in very-low birth weight (VLBW) neonates and if so, at what time point after transfusion restoration of previous SMA BFV patterns occurs.

Design/Methods: VLBW pre-term neonates, older than 14 days and tolerating bolus enteral feedings administered every 3?h were enrolled in this prospective observational study. Pulsed Doppler ultrasound was used to measure pre- and post-prandial (at 45?min) time-averaged mean, peak and end diastolic velocities (TAMV, PSV, EDV) immediately before and after 15?ml/kg of PRBC transfusion was given over 3?h; patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) status was also evaluated. Subsequent pre- and post-prandial SMA BFVs were recorded 24 and 48?h after the transfusion.

Results: Pre- and post-prandial measurements were obtained for 21 out of 25 enrolled infants. Post-prandial SMA BFVs were attenuated during the feedings immediately after transfusion; at 24 and 48?h after transfusion, changes in post-prandial SMA BFVs were similar to those measured prior to transfusion; the presence of the PDA did not affect results.

Conclusions: PRBC transfusion blunted SMA BFV responses to feedings immediately after the transfusion with normalization observed 24?h post-transfusion.