Relationship of literacy and heart failure in adults with diabetes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although reading ability may impact educational strategies and management of heart failure (HF), the prevalence of limited literacy in patients with HF is unknown.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Subjects were drawn from the Vermont Diabetes Information System Field Survey, a cross-sectional study of adults with diabetes in primary care. Participants' self-reported characteristics were subjected to logistic regression to estimate the association of heart failure and literacy while controlling for social and economic factors. The Short Test of Functional Health Literacy was used to measure literacy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 172 subjects with HF and diabetes, 27% had limited literacy compared to 15% of 826 subjects without HF (OR 2.05; 95% CI 1.39, 3.02; <it>P </it>< 0.001). Adjusting for age, sex, race, income, marital status and health insurance, HF continued to be significantly associated with limited literacy (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.00, 2.41, <it>P </it>= .05).</p> <p>After adjusting for education, however, HF was no longer independently associated with literacy (OR 1.31; 95% CI 0.82 – 2.08; <it>P </it>= 0.26).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Over one quarter of diabetic adults with HF have limited literacy. Although this association is no longer statistically significant when adjusted for education, clinicians should be aware that many of their patients have important limitations in dealing with written materials.</p

Local steroid injection for moderately severe idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome: Protocol of a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial (NCT 00806871)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients with idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) are commonly treated with steroid injection into or proximal to the carpal tunnel. However, evidence for its efficacy beyond one month has not been established in randomized placebo-controlled trials. The primary aim of this randomized trial is to assess the efficacy of steroid injection into the carpal tunnel in relieving symptoms of CTS in patients with symptoms of such severity to warrant surgical treatment but have not been treated with steroid injection.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The study is a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Patients referred to one orthopedic department because of CTS are screened. Eligibility criteria are age 18 to 70 years, clinical diagnosis of primary idiopathic CTS and abnormal nerve conduction tests or clinical diagnosis made independently by two orthopedic surgeons, failed treatment with wrist splinting, symptom severity of such magnitude that the patient is willing to undergo surgery, no severe sensory loss or thenar muscle atrophy, and no previous steroid injection for CTS. A total of 120 patients will be randomized to injection of 80 mg Methylprednisolone, 40 mg Methylprednisolone, or normal saline, each also containing 10 mg Lidocaine. Evaluation at baseline and at 5, 10, 24 and 52 weeks after injection includes validated questionnaires (CTS symptom severity scale, <it>Quick</it>DASH and SF-6D), adverse events, physical examination by a blinded assessor, and nerve conduction tests. The primary outcome measures are change in the CTS symptom severity score at 10 weeks and the rate of surgery at 52 weeks. The secondary outcome measures are the score change in the CTS symptom severity scale at 52 weeks, time to surgery, and change in <it>Quick</it>DASH and SF-6D scores and patient satisfaction at 10 and 52 weeks. The primary analysis will be carried out using mixed model analysis of repeated measures.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This paper describes the rationale and design of a double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial that aims to determine the efficacy of two different doses of steroid injected into the carpal tunnel in patients with moderately severe idiopathic CTS.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT00806871</p

Facial expressions depicting compassionate and critical emotions: the development and validation of a new emotional face stimulus set

Attachment with altruistic others requires the ability to appropriately process affiliative and kind facial cues. Yet there is no stimulus set available to investigate such processes. Here, we developed a stimulus set depicting compassionate and critical facial expressions, and validated its effectiveness using well-established visual-probe methodology. In Study 1, 62 participants rated photographs of actors displaying compassionate/kind and critical faces on strength of emotion type. This produced a new stimulus set based on N = 31 actors, whose facial expressions were reliably distinguished as compassionate, critical and neutral. In Study 2, 70 participants completed a visual-probe task measuring attentional orientation to critical and compassionate/kind faces. This revealed that participants lower in self-criticism demonstrated enhanced attention to compassionate/kind faces whereas those higher in self-criticism showed no bias. To sum, the new stimulus set produced interpretable findings using visual-probe methodology and is the first to include higher order, complex positive affect displays

Effective-Range Expansion of the Neutron-Deuteron Scattering Studied by a Quark-Model Nonlocal Gaussian Potential

The S-wave effective range parameters of the neutron-deuteron (nd) scattering are derived in the Faddeev formalism, using a nonlocal Gaussian potential based on the quark-model baryon-baryon interaction fss2. The spin-doublet low-energy eigenphase shift is sufficiently attractive to reproduce predictions by the AV18 plus Urbana three-nucleon force, yielding the observed value of the doublet scattering length and the correct differential cross sections below the deuteron breakup threshold. This conclusion is consistent with the previous result for the triton binding energy, which is nearly reproduced by fss2 without reinforcing it with the three-nucleon force.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures and 6 tables, submitted to Prog. Theor. Phy

The multi-peak adaptive landscape of crocodylomorph body size evolution

Background: Little is known about the long-term patterns of body size evolution in Crocodylomorpha, the > 200-million-year-old group that includes living crocodylians and their extinct relatives. Extant crocodylians are mostly large-bodied (3–7 m) predators. However, extinct crocodylomorphs exhibit a wider range of phenotypes, and many of the earliest taxa were much smaller ( Results: Crocodylomorphs reached an early peak in body size disparity during the Late Jurassic, and underwent an essentially continual decline since then. A multi-peak Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model outperforms all other evolutionary models fitted to our data (including both uniform and non-uniform), indicating that the macroevolutionary dynamics of crocodylomorph body size are better described within the concept of an adaptive landscape, with most body size variation emerging after shifts to new macroevolutionary regimes (analogous to adaptive zones). We did not find support for a consistent evolutionary trend towards larger sizes among lineages (i.e., Cope’s rule), or strong correlations of body size with climate. Instead, the intermediate to large body sizes of some crocodylomorphs are better explained by group-specific adaptations. In particular, the evolution of a more aquatic lifestyle (especially marine) correlates with increases in average body size, though not without exceptions. Conclusions: Shifts between macroevolutionary regimes provide a better explanation of crocodylomorph body size evolution on large phylogenetic and temporal scales, suggesting a central role for lineage-specific adaptations rather than climatic forcing. Shifts leading to larger body sizes occurred in most aquatic and semi-aquatic groups. This, combined with extinctions of groups occupying smaller body size regimes (particularly during the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic), gave rise to the upward-shifted body size distribution of extant crocodylomorphs compared to their smaller-bodied terrestrial ancestors.</p

Metastatic breast carcinoma of the coracoid process: two case reports

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The coracoid process of the scapula is a rare site of involvement for metastatic disease or for primary tumors. We are unaware of any reports in the literature of pathologic coracoid process fractures and only one report of metastatic disease to the coracoid.</p> <p>Methods and Results</p> <p>In this case report, we present two cases with metastatic breast carcinoma of the coracoid process, one of which presented with a pathologic fracture of the coracoid.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>An orthopaedic surgeon must be aware of the potential for metastatic disease to the coracoid as they may be the first medical provider to encounter evidence of malignant disease.</p

An observational efficacy and safety analysis of the treatment of acute invasive aspergillosis using voriconazole

The purpose of this study was to evaluate efficacy and safety of voriconazole in patients with acute invasive aspergillosis (IA) in a real-life, clinical setting. This was a multicenter observational study in adult patients treated with voriconazole for invasive mycosis. The study evaluated clinical response, mortality, use of other licensed antifungal therapy (OLAT), and treatment duration. This sub-analysis evaluated treatment and outcome data specifically from adult patients with proven/probable IA, while safety data were assessed in patients with proven/probable/possible IA. Of the 141 patients enrolled, 113 were adults with proven/probable IA and six had possible IA. Voriconazole treatment duration ranged from 1 to 183 days (median, 49.5 days). Voriconazole was used exclusively in 64% (72/113) of patients and in combination/sequentially with OLAT in 36%. Overall successful treatment response was 50% (57/113 patients). Twelve percent (14/113) of patients were switched to OLAT, either because of insufficient response (four patients) or for safety reasons (10 patients). Overall and attributable (entirely or partially due to fungal infection) mortality rates were 52% (59/113) and 17%, respectively. Treatment-related adverse events were reported for 18% (22/119) of patients. This observational study confirms the results of previous clinical trials demonstrating voriconazole as an effective and safe agent for treatment of confirmed acute IA

High Resolution Genotyping of Clinical Aspergillus flavus Isolates from India Using Microsatellites

Contains fulltext : 124312.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Worldwide, Aspergillus flavus is the second leading cause of allergic, invasive and colonizing fungal diseases in humans. However, it is the most common species causing fungal rhinosinusitis and eye infections in tropical countries. Despite the growing challenges due to A. flavus, the molecular epidemiology of this fungus has not been well studied. We evaluated the use of microsatellites for high resolution genotyping of A. flavus from India and a possible connection between clinical presentation and genotype of the involved isolate. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A panel of nine microsatellite markers were selected from the genome of A. flavus NRRL 3357. These markers were used to type 162 clinical isolates of A. flavus. All nine markers proved to be polymorphic displaying up to 33 alleles per marker. Thirteen isolates proved to be a mixture of different genotypes. Among the 149 pure isolates, 124 different genotypes could be recognized. The discriminatory power (D) for the individual markers ranged from 0.657 to 0.954. The D value of the panel of nine markers combined was 0.997. The multiplex multicolor approach was instrumental in rapid typing of a large number of isolates. There was no correlation between genotype and the clinical presentation of the infection. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: There is a large genotypic diversity in clinical A. flavus isolates from India. The presence of more than one genotype in clinical samples illustrates the possibility that persons may be colonized by multiple genotypes and that any isolate from a clinical specimen is not necessarily the one actually causing infection. Microsatellites are excellent typing targets for discriminating between A. flavus isolates from various origins

Alternative Splicing of the Cardiac Sodium Channel Creates Multiple Variants of Mutant T1620K Channels

Alternative splicing creates several Nav1.5 transcripts in the mammalian myocardium and in various other tissues including brain, dorsal root ganglia, breast cancer cells as well as neuronal stem cell lines. In total nine Nav1.5 splice variants have been discovered. Four of them, namely Nav1.5a, Nav1.5c, Nav1.5d, and Nav1.5e, generate functional channels in heterologous expression systems. The significance of alternatively spliced transcripts for cardiac excitation, in particular their role in SCN5A channelopathies, is less well understood. In the present study, we systematically investigated electrophysiological properties of mutant T1620K channels in the background of all known functional Nav1.5 splice variants in HEK293 cells. This mutation has been previously associated with two distinct cardiac excitation disorders: with long QT syndrome type 3 (LQT3) and isolated cardiac conduction disease (CCD). When investigating the effect of the T1620K mutation, we noticed similar channel defects in the background of hNav1.5, hNav1.5a, and hNav1.5c. In contrast, the hNav1.5d background produced differential effects: In the mutant channel, some gain-of-function features did not emerge, whereas loss-of-function became more pronounced. In case of hNav1.5e, the neonatal variant of hNav1.5, both the splice variant itself as well as the corresponding mutant channel showed electrophysiological properties that were distinct from the wild-type and mutant reference channels, hNav1.5 and T1620K, respectively. In conclusion, our data show that alternative splicing is a mechanism capable of generating a variety of functionally distinct wild-type and mutant hNav1.5 channels. Thus, the cellular splicing machinery is a potential player affecting genotype-phenotype correlations in SCN5A channelopathies