Comparison of Postoperative Pain in Children with Two Intracapsular Tonsillotomy Techniques and a Standard Tonsillectomy : Microdebrider and radiofrequency tonsillotomies versus standard tonsillectomies

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the duration and severity of postoperative pain for two different tonsillotomy techniques (radiofrequency [RF] and microdebrider [MD]) with the standard tonsillectomy. Methods: This non-randomised retrospective study, carried out from February 2011 to September 2012, investigated 128 children in two independent centres: Heim Pál Children’s Hospital in Budapest, Hungary, and Muscat Private Hospital in Muscat, Oman. Those undergoing conventional tonsillectomies acted as the control group. One centre tested the MD technique (n = 28) while the other centre tested the RF technique (n = 31). Results: The pain-free period after the tonsillotomies was similar between the two techniques and ranged up to three days. Other indicators of pain resolution, like the use of a single analgesic, reduced night-time waking and the time taken to resume a normal diet, were also similar for the two groups. However, patients benefited significantly from having a tonsillotomy rather than a tonsillectomy. Conclusion: The partial resectioning of tonsillar tissue using the MD and RF techniques showed promising outcomes for a better postoperative quality of life when compared to a traditional tonsillectomy. In this study, the results of both the MD and RF tonsillotomy methods were almost identical in terms of the duration of postoperative pain and recovery time

RENEB accident simulation exercise

Purpose: The RENEB accident exercise was carried out in order to train the RENEB participants in coordinating and managing potentially large data sets that would be generated in case of a major radiological event. Materials and methods: Each participant was offered the possibility to activate the network by sending an alerting email about a simulated radiation emergency. The same participant had to collect, compile and report capacity, triage categorization and exposure scenario results obtained from all other participants. The exercise was performed over 27 weeks and involved the network consisting of 28 institutes: 21 RENEB members, four candidates and three non-RENEB partners. Results: The duration of a single exercise never exceeded 10 days, while the response from the assisting laboratories never came later than within half a day. During each week of the exercise, around 4500 samples were reported by all service laboratories (SL) to be examined and 54 scenarios were coherently estimated by all laboratories (the standard deviation from the mean of all SL answers for a given scenario category and a set of data was not larger than 3 patient codes). Conclusions: Each participant received training in both the role of a reference laboratory (activating the network) and of a service laboratory (responding to an activation request). The procedures in the case of radiological event were successfully established and tested

Protein Aggregation/Crystallization and Minor Structural Changes: Universal versus Specific Aspects

Protein association covers wide interests in biophysics, protein science, and biotechnologies, and it is often viewed as governed by conformation details. More recently, the existence of a universal physical principle governing aggregation/crystallization processes has been suggested by a series of experiments and shown to be linked to the universal scaling properties of concentration fluctuations occurring in the proximity of a phase transition (spinodal demixing in the specific case). Such properties have provided a quantitative basis for capturing kinetic association data on a universal master curve, ruled by the normalized distance of the state of the system from its instability region. Here we report new data on lysozyme crystal nucleation. They strengthen the evidence in favor of universality and show that the system enters the region of universal behavior in a stepwise manner as a result of minor conformation changes. Results also show that the link between conformation details and universal behavior is actuated by interactions mediated by the solvent. Outside the region of universal behavior, nucleation rates become unpredictable and undetectably long

Evening and morning exhaled volatile compound patterns are different in obstructive sleep apnoea assessed with electronic nose

PURPOSE: Electronic noses represent a technique for the measurement of exhaled breath volatile compound pattern which can discriminate patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) from control subjects. Although overnight changes in circulating biomarkers were reported, this effect on the exhaled volatile compound pattern has not been studied before. We aimed to compare breath patterns in the evening and in the morning in patients with OSA and to study the ability of the electronic nose to distinguish patients from controls based on these exhaled volatile patterns. METHODS: Exhaled breath volatile compound pattern was measured before and after night in 26 patients with suspected sleep-disordered breathing (53 +/- 15 years) who underwent polysomnography and in ten control subjects (37 +/- 15 years), by whom sleep-disordered breathing was excluded with a home apnoea screening device. Breath measurements were also performed in the morning in 26 healthy, non-smoking age-matched controls (48 +/- 10 years) with no complaints about disturbed sleep. Exhaled volatile compound pattern was processed with a Cyranose 320 electronic nose, and principal component analysis was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Exhaled volatile compound patterns recorded in the evening and in the morning were different in patients with OSA (p = 0.01) but not in non-OSA habitual snorers (p = 0.49) or in control subjects (p = 0.23). The electronic nose distinguished patients with OSA from control subjects based on the breath samples collected in the morning (p 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Evening and morning exhaled volatile compound patterns are different in OSA. This might affect the ability of electronic noses to identify this disorder. Overnight alterations in volatile substances need to be taken into account during exhaled breath measurements in OSA

RENEB accident simulation exercise

International audiencePurpose: The RENEB accident exercise was carried out in order to train the RENEB participants in coordinating and managing potentially large data sets that would be generated in case of a major radiological event. Materials and methods: Each participant was offered the possibility to activate the network by sending an alerting email about a simulated radiation emergency. The same participant had to collect, compile and report capacity, triage categorization and exposure scenario results obtained from all other participants. The exercise was performed over 27 weeks and involved the network consisting of 28 institutes: 21 RENEB members, four candidates and three non-RENEB partners. Results: The duration of a single exercise never exceeded 10 days, while the response from the assisting laboratories never came later than within half a day. During each week of the exercise, around 4500 samples were reported by all service laboratories (SL) to be examined and 54 scenarios were coherently estimated by all laboratories (the standard deviation from the mean of all SL answers for a given scenario category and a set of data was not larger than 3 patient codes). Conclusions: Each participant received training in both the role of a reference laboratory (activating the network) and of a service laboratory (responding to an activation request). The procedures in the case of radiological event were successfully established and tested. © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group