Ultrasound Guidance Superiority in Pediatric Sialorrhea Treatment With Intraglandular Botulinum Toxin Application: A Four-Year Retrospective Study

Introduction The management of sialorrhea in children with multiple disabilities is extremely important not only for aesthetic/psychosocial reasons but also for functional and clinical ones. There are several recommended management methods with strong evidence of the effectiveness of intraglandular application of botulinum toxin A. Materials and methods In this four-year retrospective report, we compare two populations who received intraglandular type A botulinum toxin injections in the pediatric unit of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) Department at a central hospital. The injections were administered using either ultrasound guidance (US) or anatomical landmarks. Results Out of a total of 29 patients with neurological conditions, 16 met the eligibility criteria for this study. The study group comprised seven females (44%) and nine males (56%), with a median age of 9 years. The average pre-procedure sialorrhea staging was four. A total of 23 procedures were performed, with 16 conducted under ultrasound guidance (US) and seven via anatomical landmarks (non-US). In the US group, a statistically significant difference in sialorrhea staging was observed at one and three months post-procedure (p<0.05), but not at six months post-procedure. Conversely, no statistically significant difference in sialorrhea staging was found at any time point in the non-US group. The comparison between the two groups supports the use of ultrasound guidance, showing superior outcomes at one and three months post-procedure (p<0.05). Conclusion The results of this study align with global trends seen in medical publications and guidelines advocating for the use of ultrasound in this procedure. Future prospective and larger-scale studies are essential to validate these findings.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Physical interpretation of the Wigner rotations and its implications for relativistic quantum information

We present a new treatment for the spin of a massive relativistic particle in the context of quantum information based on a physical interpretation of the Wigner rotations, obtaining different results in relation to the previous works. We are lead to the conclusions that it is not possible to define a reduced density matrix for the particle spin and that the Pauli-Lubanski (or similar) spin operators are not suitable to describe measurements where spin couples to an electromagnetic field in the measuring apparatus. These conclusions contradict the assumptions made by most of the previous papers on the subject. We also propose an experimental test of our formulation.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Several changes were made on the text. One extra example was include

Energy and momentum entanglement in parametric downconversion

We present a simple treatment for the phenomenon of parametric downconversion considering the coherent scattering of one pump photon into a photon pair by a nonlinear crystal. The energy and momentum entanglement of the quantum state of the generated twin photons are seen as a consequence of the fundamental indistinguishability of the time and the position in which the photon pair is created inside the crystal. We also discuss some consequences of the system entanglement.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. v3: Minor changes on the text. Some references were include

Rapid Targeted Gene Disruption in Bacillus Anthracis

Anthrax is a zoonotic disease recognized to affect herbivores since Biblical times and has the widest range of susceptible host species of any known pathogen. The ease with which the bacterium can be weaponized and its recent deliberate use as an agent of terror, have highlighted the importance of gaining a deeper understanding and effective countermeasures for this important pathogen. High quality sequence data has opened the possibility of systematic dissection of how genes distributed on both the bacterial chromosome and associated plasmids have made it such a successful pathogen. However, low transformation efficiency and relatively few genetic tools for chromosomal manipulation have hampered full interrogation of its genome. Results: Group II introns have been developed into an efficient tool for site-specific gene inactivation in several organisms. We have adapted group II intron targeting technology for application in Bacillus anthracis and generated vectors that permit gene inactivation through group II intron insertion. The vectors developed permit screening for the desired insertion through PCR or direct selection of intron insertions using a selection scheme that activates a kanamycin resistance marker upon successful intron insertion. Conclusions: The design and vector construction described here provides a useful tool for high throughput experimental interrogation of the Bacillus anthracis genome and will benefit efforts to develop improved vaccines and therapeutics.Chem-Bio Diagnostics program from the Department of Defense Chemical and Biological Defense program through the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) B102387MNIH GM037949Welch Foundation F-1607Cellular and Molecular Biolog

SIMULATION OF A FLOW THROUGH A RIGID POROUS MEDIUM SUBJECTED TO A CONSTRAINT

This work uses a previuosly proposed mathematical model to study the filling up of an unsaturated rigid porous medium by a liquid identifying the transition from unsaturated to saturated flow. This model accounts for the physical upper bound of the fluid fraction that depends on the volume of the pores and employs a mixture theory to describe the flow. The mathematical description of the phenomenon leads to a nonlinear hyperbolic system. In order to solve this system, the space of admissible solutions must be enlarged to admit discontinuous solutions that may be shock waves. The complete solution of a Riemann problem associated to the system of conservation laws satisfying the constraint given by the saturation upper bound is presented. Some meaningful results are presented and discussed

Abnormalities of erythrocyte filtrability in diabetic microangiopathy

In 30 ambulatory patients (14 men and 16 women), with diabetes mellitus (7 of type I and 23 of type II) of variable duration and with ages averaging 52.2 years, the degree of retinal microangiopathy was assessed along with the erythrocyte filtration rate (FR) and the percentage of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA,). The FR was significantly (p < 0.001) lower among the diabetics (12.09 ± 2.71 JAI sec-I) than in the controls (15.80 ± 1.75). On the other hand, the level of HbA1 was significantly (p < 0.001) higher in the diabetics (12.26 ± 3.83) than in the control group (7.97 ± 1.47). The severity of the diabetic retinopathy was estimated as follows: degree Tin 10 patients, degree II in 10 patients also, degree III in 4 patients and no abnormalities in 6 individuals. Among the patients the retinal lesions were significantly correlated (r = -0.46, p < 0.01) with the value of FR but were not affected by the level of HbA,. No significant correlation was detected between FR and HbA1. Our results suggest that, as a consequence of the metabolic abnormalities present in the diabetics, the non-enzymatic glycosylation of hemoglobin A is increased. The rise of erythrocyte rigidity, while hampering blood-flow through already injured microvessels, could contribute to the development of retinal abnormalities irrespective of the HbA, level. Consequently, the abnormalities in the retinal microcirculation could, directly or indirectly, influence red cell filtrability, worsening the rheologic behaviour in the local microvessels.This study was supported by a grant from INIC (MbL2)

Ethanol and erythrocyte membrane interaction : a hemorheologic perspective

© 1999 – IOS Press. All rights reservedPrevious studies have documented structural and functional changes induced by ethanol–erythrocyte membrane interaction. In order to perform an in vitro study on the effect of different ethanol concentrations on erythrocyte hemorheologic properties, blood samples were collected from 21 male donors at the Hospital of Santa Maria. Whole blood aliquots were incubated with ethanol solutions of rising concentrations. The following parameters were measured: erythrocyte aggregation, haemoglobin, carboxyhaemoglobin and methaemoglobin concentrations, hematocrit, plasma osmolality and erythrocyte membrane fluidity (fluorescence polarisation probes TMA-DPH and DPH). With ethanol blood concentrations of 45 mM a rise in plasma osmolality (0.352 Osm/kg H2O vs 0.310 Osm/kg H2O; p < 0.001) was verified. With 67 mM concentration a decrease of erythrocyte aggregation (11.03 vs 12.81; p < 0.05) and an increase in plasma osmolality (0.380 Osm/kg H2O vs 0.310 Osm/kg H2O;p < 0.001) were obtained. In conclusion, ethanol only changes erythrocyte aggregation for a concentration of 67 mM. These data could lead to future changes in therapeutic approaches to situations such as alcoholic coma