Efficacy of nail brace treatment for ingrown nails

have been defined for treatment of ingrown nails. In this study we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of nail brace treatment which is a cheap conservative treatment, recurrence percentages after nail brace treatment and risk factors for recurrence. Material and Method: Thirty-two female and 19 male patients with the complaint of ingrown nail aged 14-73 with a total of 73 nails are included to the study. Silver nitrate has been applied every 3-7 days to patients with granulation tissue. Nail brace application has been stopped in patients with granulation tissue once the granulation tissue has subsided and complaints have subsided, in patients without granulation tissue as their complaint was over during weekly controls in first month and monthly controls thereafter. Results: Ninety-eight point six percent of patients having ingrown nail (72/73) benefited from brace treatment. In 12 nails out of 71, recurrence has been established, in 59 nails follow-up without recurrence continues. Two nails have not been reached for followup after the first 3 month relief. Assessing patients treated with nail brace for recurrence, no significant difference was detected between recurrent and non-recurrent groups according to stage of ingrown nail, presence of granulation tissue, nail thickness, angle of nail curve, age, gender, presence of hyperhydrosis, duration of treatment and total force applied. Conclusion: Nail brace application has been found effective for pain relief and as treatment in patients with ingrown nails and no statistically significant predictive factor has been found in terms of recurrence after treatment

Prediction of degree of carotid stenosis with the transluminal attenuation difference ratio

PURPOSEWe aimed to assess the diagnostic performance of transluminal attenuation difference (TAD) in predicting the severity of internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis.METHODSThe study cohort consisted of 48 patients with 70%) stenosis compared with control arteries and low-moderate stenosis. A TAD ratio cutoff of 4.5 predicted 70%–99% stenosis with a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 93%. The inter- and intraobserver agreements in TAD measurements were almost perfect (ICC, 0.89–0.86).CONCLUSIONAssessment of TAD ratio predicts the degree of stenosis in concordance with NASCET system

Diagnostic accuracy and safety of CT-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy of pulmonary lesions with non-coaxial technique: a single center experience with 442 biopsies

PURPOSE:We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and safety of computed tomography (CT)-guided biopsy of pulmonary lesions with fine needle aspiration (FNA) using non-coaxial technique.METHODS:We analyzed 442 patients who underwent CT-guided lung biopsy with FNA and non-coaxial technique to determine the diagnostic outcomes, complication rates, and independent risk factors for diagnostic failure and pneumothorax.RESULTS:Diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were 97.6%, 97.3%, and 100%, respectively. Age and >35 mm lesion size were significant risk factors for diagnostic failure. The rates of pneumothorax and chest tube placement were 19% and 2.9%, respectively. Middle and lower lobe location, lesion to pleura distance >7.5 mm, and >45° needle trajectory angle were significant risk factors for pneumothorax.CONCLUSION:CT-guided FNA of pulmonary lesions with non-coaxial technique is a safe and reliable method with a relatively low pneumothorax rate and an acceptably high diagnostic accuracy

An initial application of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) for measuring disability in patients with low back pain

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent approaches to outcome measurement involving Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) offer an approach for measuring disability in low back pain (LBP) in a way that can reduce the burden upon patient and professional. The aim of this study was to explore the potential of CAT in LBP for measuring disability as defined in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) which includes impairments, activity limitation, and participation restriction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>266 patients with low back pain answered questions from a range of widely used questionnaires. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to identify disability dimensions which were then subjected to Rasch analysis. Reliability was tested by internal consistency and person separation index (PSI). Discriminant validity of disability levels were evaluated by Spearman correlation coefficient (r), intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC(2,1)] and the Bland-Altman approach. A CAT was developed for each dimension, and the results checked against simulated and real applications from a further 133 patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Factor analytic techniques identified two dimensions named "body functions" and "activity-participation". After deletion of some items for failure to fit the Rasch model, the remaining items were mostly free of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) for age and gender. Reliability exceeded 0.90 for both dimensions. The disability levels generated using all items and those obtained from the real CAT application were highly correlated (i.e. > 0.97 for both dimensions). On average, 19 and 14 items were needed to estimate the precise disability levels using the initial CAT for the first and second dimension. However, a marginal increase in the standard error of the estimate across successive iterations substantially reduced the number of items required to make an estimate.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Using a combination approach of EFA and Rasch analysis this study has shown that it is possible to calibrate items onto a single metric in a way that can be used to provide the basis of a CAT application. Thus there is an opportunity to obtain a wide variety of information to evaluate the biopsychosocial model in its more complex forms, without necessarily increasing the burden of information collection for patients.</p

Efficacy of Nail Brace Treatment For Ingrown Nails

Background and Design: Ingrown nail is a common, painful health problem. Various conservative and surgical methods have been defined for treatment of ingrown nails. In this study we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of nail brace treatment which is a cheap conservative treatment, recurrence percentages after nail brace treatment and risk factors for recurrence. Material and Method: Thirty-two female and 19 male patients with the complaint of ingrown nail aged 14-73 with a total of 73 nails are included to the study. Silver nitrate has been applied every 3-7 days to patients with granulation tissue. Nail brace application has been stopped in patients with granulation tissue once the granulation tissue has subsided and complaints have subsided, in patients without granulation tissue as their complaint was over during weekly controls in first month and monthly controls thereafter. Results: Ninety-eight point six percent of patients having ingrown nail (72173) benefited from brace treatment. In 12 nails out of 71, recurrence has been established, in 59 nails follow-up without recurrence continues. Two nails have not been reached for followup after the first 3 month relief. Assessing patients treated with nail brace for recurrence, no significant difference was detected between recurrent and non-recurrent groups according to stage of ingrown nail, presence of granulation tissue, nail thickness, angle of nail curve, age, gender, presence of hyperhydrosis, duration of treatment and total force applied. Conclusion: Nail brace application has been found effective for pain relief and as treatment in patients with ingrown nails and no statistically significant predictive factor has been found in terms of recurrence after treatment. (Turkderm 2010; 44: 88-91

How Does Resveratrol Change Some Metabolic and Circulatory Parameters? A Preliminary Study* Zmiany niektórych wskaźników krążenia i metabolicznych wywołane przez resveratrol -badanie wstępne

Abstract Objectives. Resveratrol is a natural polyphenol present in red wine and various foods. The aim of this study was to investigate its effects on body weight, several biochemical parameters, blood pressure, and heart rate in rats. Material and Methods. In this preliminary study, rats were divided into two equal groups according to body weight (n = 20 each) to investigate the effects of resveratrol on two different weight groups, one relatively higher than the other. The first group constituted 10− to 12−week−old male Sprague−Dawley rats with a mean body weight of 235 g and the second rats weighing approximately 284 g. Both groups were divided into control (n = 10) and experimental (n = 10) groups. In the two experimental groups, resveratrol was administered (20 mg/kg) in drink− ing water for 24 weeks. After one week of training, systolic arterial blood pressure and heart rate were recorded in all the groups. Changes due to resveratrol administration in body weight and blood glucose, total cholesterol, aspar− tate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma−glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), and uric acid (UA) levels were compared with the controls. Results. There were statistically significant decreases in weight gain, total cholesterol, and blood pressure in both experimental groups. In the lighter group, ALT level (p = 0.003) and in the heavier ALP (p = 0.049) and UA lev− els (p = 0.030) were decreased slightly compared with the controls. Conclusions. The results suggest that resveratrol ameliorated total cholesterol levels and decreased body weights with subsequent changes in systolic blood pressure while not leading to any deterioration in biochemical parame− ters (Adv Clin Exp Med 2009, 18, 4, 323-328). Key words: resveratrol, cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate, body weight. Streszczenie Cel pracy. Resveratrol jest naturalnym polifenolem obecnym w czerwonym winie i produktach spożywczych. Ce− lem pracy była ocena jego wpływu na masę ciała, wskaźniki biochemiczne, ciśnienie krwi i tętno u szczurów. Materiał i metody. We wstępnym badaniu szczury podzielono na 2 grupy odpowiadające pod względem masy cia− ła (n = 20), aby ocenić wpływ resveratrolu na 2 różne grupy mas, jedna istotnie większa od drugiej. Do pierwszej grupy włączono 10-12−tygodniowe szczury Sprague−Dawley ze średnią masą ciała 235 g, a do drugiej szczury wa− żące średnio 284 g. Obie grupy podzielono na kontrolną (n = 10) i badaną (n = 10). W obu grupach badanych re− sveratrol (20 mg/kg) podawano przez 24 tygodnie w wodzie pitnej. Po tygodniu treningu zmierzono skurczowe ci− śnienie krwi i tętno we wszystkich grupach. Zmiany wywołane podaniem resveratrolu masy ciała, glukozy we krwi, całkowitego cholesterolu, aminotransferazy asparaginianowej AST, aminotransferazy alaninowej ALT, fosfa− tazy alkalicznej ALP, gamma−glutamylotransferazy GGT, kwasu moczowego porównano z grupą kontrolną. Wyniki. Zanotowano istotnie statystycznie zmniejszenie masy ciała, całkowitego cholesterolu i ciśnienia krwi w obu grupach badanych. W grupie z mniejszą masą ciała stężenie ALT (p = 0,003), a w grupie z większą masą ALP (p = 0,049) i kwas moczowy (p = 0,30) były mniejsze w porównaniu z grupą kontrolną. Wnioski. Wyniki sugerują, że resveratrol poprawił stężenie całkowitego cholesterolu i zmniejszył masę ciała wraz z następującymi zmianami skurczowego ciśnienia krwi, ale nie doprowadził do pogorszenia wskaźników bioche− micznyc

Association of Plasma Homocysteine, Serum Folic Acid and Vitamin B12 Concentrations and MTHFR C677T Polymorphism with Preeclampsia

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to ev aluate the association between preeclampsia and plasma homocysteine, serum folic acid, v itamin B12 concentrations and MTHFR C677T polymorphism. STUDY DESIGN: This study was a case-control study including 20 pregnant females with preeclampsia and 30 healthy normotensive pregnant (ages 18-40) females. Plasma homocysteine, serum folic acid and vitamin B12 concentrations were measured in all patients in the third trimester of pregnancy and MTHFR C677T polymorphism was also analyzed. RESULTS: The risk of preeclampsia in patients with homocysteine concentrations >8.65 μmol/L increased 8-f old as compared to homocysteine concentrations <6.19 μmol/L. While the mean plasma homocysteine concentration (8.65±2.05 μmol/L vs. 6.19±1.52 μmol/L, p<0.001), was high in the preeclampsia group as compared to controls, the mean serum folic acid concentration was signif icantly low (11.49±8.96 ng/ml vs. 15.15±6.7 ng/ml, p= 0.020). No significant difference was noted between the groups regarding mean serum vitamin B12 concentrations (241.1±111.7 pg/ml vs. 236±111.1 pg/ml, p=0.879) and MTHFR C677T polymorphism including MTHFR gene TT/CT/CC genoty pes. CONCLUSION: Elevated third trimester plasma homocysteine concentrations were associated with increased risk of preeclampsia. This association was more pronounced in our study which may also be related to synergistic effect of the coexistent folic acid deficiency. MTHFR C677T polymorphism could not alone explain the hyperhomocysteinemia in patients with preeclampsi

Comparison of deep learning‐based recurrence‐free survival with random survival forest and Cox proportional hazard models in Stage‐I NSCLC patients

Abstract Background The curative treatment for Stage I non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is surgical resection. Even for Stage I patients, the probability of recurrence after curative treatment is around 20%. Methods In this retrospective study, we included 268 operated Stage I NSCLC patients between January 2008 and June 2018 to analyze the prognostic factors (pathological stage, histological type, number of sampled mediastinal lymph node stations, type of resection, SUVmax of the lesion) that may affect relapse with three different methods, Cox proportional hazard (CoxPH), random survival forest (RSF), DeepSurv, and to compare the performance of these methods with Harrell's C‐index. The dataset was randomly split into two sets, training and test sets. Results In the training set, DeepSurv showed the best performance among the three models, the C‐index of the training set was 0.832, followed by RSF (0.675) and CoxPH (0.672). In the test set, RSF showed the best performance among the three models, followed by DeepSurv with 0.677 and CoxPH methods with 0.625. Conclusion In conclusion, machine‐learning techniques can be useful in predicting recurrence for lung cancer and guide clinicians both in choosing the adjuvant treatment options and best follow‐up programs