Modified toggle pin technique combined with prosthetic capsular reconstruction for surgical stabilization of coxofemoral luxation in a Shetland pony

Objective To describe open reduction and surgical stabilization of a coxofemoral luxation in a pony using a modified toggle pin technique and prosthetic joint capsule reconstruction without osteotomy of the greater trochanter. Animal A 2-year-old Shetland pony with a bodyweight of 167 kg. Study design Case report. Methods Radiographic examination confirmed craniodorsal luxation of the left coxofemoral joint. An open reduction with the aid of a pulley system was performed. A toggle pin was inserted through a bone tunnel extending from the level of the femoral shaft through the femoral head and the center of the acetabulum for the pin to be positioned on the medial wall of the acetabulum. FiberWire was subsequently passed through the cranial and caudal aspects of the acetabulum as well as a transverse tunnel in the femoral neck in a figure of 8 to facilitate capsular reconstruction. The pony was placed in a sling for 8 weeks and gradually returned to normal activity over 2 months. Results Postoperative radiographic examination confirmed the position of the femoral head in the acetabulum with the implants in place. On 2-year follow-up the pony was sound at walk and trot. Conclusion A combined intra- and extra-articular stabilization technique for coxofemoral luxation in a pony resulted in successful long-term reduction and excellent outcome

Strongyloides stercoralis in Swiss dogs – a retrospective study suggests an increasing occurrence of this potentially zoonotic parasite as a consequence of dog imports

Strongyloides stercoralis is a worldwide occurring nematode infecting canids and primates (including humans), responsible for a largely underestimated zoonotic disease. We here present 18 cases including overall 20 dogs affected by S. stercoralis, diagnosed in Switzerland between 2010 and 2020. The Baermann examination was positive for S. stercoralis larvae in 10, suspicious in 4, negative in one and not performed in 2 dogs. In 3 dogs the infection was identified only at necropsy by histology or by direct faecal or mucosal smears from intestinal tissue. Confirmation of suspected, necropsied and Baermann-negative dogs relied on genetic analyses. Twelve dogs had a history of import from Eastern Europe (n=4), the Mediterranean basin (n=5) or Germany (n=3). They were 7 weeks to 9,5 months old, and also the dogs supposedly born in Switzerland were younger than one year (except two, aged 15 months and 14 years). Thirteen dogs were males and 6 females (1 unknown). The most represented breeds were Chihuahuas (n=5), French Bulldogs (n=4) and Pomeranians (n=3). The most frequent clinical sign and reason for presentation was diarrhoea, occurring in 11/20 animals. Further gastrointestinal symptoms were vomiting, anorexia/hyporexia, adipsia, dehydration, tense abdomen and tenesmus. Respiratory symptoms were the second most frequent, with coughing in 7/20 animals, followed by tachypnoea/dyspnoea in 5 and (reverse) sneezing in 3 dogs. Treatment with 50 mg/kg BW fenbendazole p.o. over 5 days was successful in 4 cases in which a follow-up examination was performed 3–6 weeks later; prolonged treatment over 21 days was also effective. Ivermectin off-label protocols described in the literature, e.g. 0,8 mg/kg BW s.c. or 0,5 mg/kg BW i.m. repeated after 2 weeks, were successful based on control examinations performed 3–10 weeks later. Strongyloides stercoralis infections are clinically relevant, potentially zoonotic and need to be included in differential diagnoses in case of canine gastrointestinal and respiratory disorders, especially in young and imported dogs

Modified toggle pin technique combined with prosthetic capsular reconstruction for surgical stabilization of coxofemoral luxation in a Shetland pony

Objective To describe open reduction and surgical stabilization of a coxofemoral luxation in a pony using a modified toggle pin technique and prosthetic joint capsule reconstruction without osteotomy of the greater trochanter. Animal A 2-year-old Shetland pony with a bodyweight of 167 kg. Study design Case report. Methods Radiographic examination confirmed craniodorsal luxation of the left coxofemoral joint. An open reduction with the aid of a pulley system was performed. A toggle pin was inserted through a bone tunnel extending from the level of the femoral shaft through the femoral head and the center of the acetabulum for the pin to be positioned on the medial wall of the acetabulum. FiberWire was subsequently passed through the cranial and caudal aspects of the acetabulum as well as a transverse tunnel in the femoral neck in a figure of 8 to facilitate capsular reconstruction. The pony was placed in a sling for 8 weeks and gradually returned to normal activity over 2 months. Results Postoperative radiographic examination confirmed the position of the femoral head in the acetabulum with the implants in place. On 2-year follow-up the pony was sound at walk and trot. Conclusion A combined intra- and extra-articular stabilization technique for coxofemoral luxation in a pony resulted in successful long-term reduction and excellent outcome

Generic 3D Representation via Pose Estimation and Matching

Though a large body of computer vision research has investigated developing generic semantic representations, efforts towards developing a similar representation for 3D has been limited. In this paper, we learn a generic 3D representation through solving a set of foundational proxy 3D tasks: object-centric camera pose estimation and wide baseline feature matching. Our method is based upon the premise that by providing supervision over a set of carefully selected foundational tasks, generalization to novel tasks and abstraction capabilities can be achieved. We empirically show that the internal representation of a multi-task ConvNet trained to solve the above core problems generalizes to novel 3D tasks (e.g., scene layout estimation, object pose estimation, surface normal estimation) without the need for fine-tuning and shows traits of abstraction abilities (e.g., cross-modality pose estimation). In the context of the core supervised tasks, we demonstrate our representation achieves state-of-the-art wide baseline feature matching results without requiring apriori rectification (unlike SIFT and the majority of learned features). We also show 6DOF camera pose estimation given a pair local image patches. The accuracy of both supervised tasks come comparable to humans. Finally, we contribute a large-scale dataset composed of object-centric street view scenes along with point correspondences and camera pose information, and conclude with a discussion on the learned representation and open research questions.Comment: Published in ECCV16. See the project website http://3drepresentation.stanford.edu/ and dataset website https://github.com/amir32002/3D_Street_Vie

Effectiveness of Nifurtimox Eflornithine Combination Therapy (NECT) in T. b. gambiense second stage sleeping sickness patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo: report from a field study

BACKGROUND: Nifurtimox-eflornithine combination therapy (NECT) for the treatment of second stage gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) was added to the World Health Organization's Essential Medicines List in 2009 after demonstration of its non-inferior efficacy compared to eflornithine therapy. A study of NECT use in the field showed acceptable safety and high efficacy until hospital discharge in a wide population, including children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and patients with a HAT treatment history. We present here the effectiveness results after the 24-month follow-up visit. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In a multicenter, open label, single arm phase IIIb study, second stage gambiense HAT patients were treated with NECT in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Clinical cure was defined 24 months after treatment as survival without clinical and/or parasitological signs of HAT. Of the 629 included patients, 619 (98.4%) were discharged alive after treatment and were examined for the presence of trypanosomes, white blood cell count in cerebro-spinal fluid, and disease symptoms. The clinical cure rate of 94.1% was comparable for all subpopulations analyzed at the 24-month follow-up visit. Self-reported adverse events during follow-up were few and concerned mainly nervous system disorders, infections, and gastro-intestinal disorders. Overall, 28 patients (4.3%) died during the course of the trial. The death of 16 of the 18 patients who died during the follow-up period was assessed as unlikely or not related to NECT. Within 24 months, eight patients (1.3%) relapsed and received rescue treatment. Sixteen patients were completely lost to follow-up. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: NECT treatment administered under field conditions was effective and sufficiently well tolerated, no major concern arose for children or pregnant or breastfeeding women. Patients with a previous HAT treatment history had the same response as those who were naive. In conclusion, NECT was confirmed as effective and appropriate for use in a broad population, including vulnerable subpopulations. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00906880

Efficacy and safety of intravenous ferric carboxymaltose compared with oral iron for the treatment of iron deficiency anaemia in women after childbirth in Tanzania: a parallelgroup, open-label, randomised controlled phase 3 trial

Background: Iron deficiency anaemia is of major concern in low-income settings, especially for women of childbearing age. Oral iron substitution efficacy is limited by poor compliance and iron depletion severity. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of intravenous ferric carboxymaltose versus oral iron substitution following childbirth in women with iron deficiency anaemia in Tanzania. Methods: This parallel-group, open-label, randomised controlled phase 3 trial was done at Bagamoyo District Hospital and Mwananyamala Hospital, Tanzania. Eligible participants were close to delivery and had iron deficiency anaemia defined as a haemoglobin concentration of less than 110 g/L and a ferritin concentration of less than 50 μg/L measured within 14 days before childbirth. Participants were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive intravenous ferric carboxymaltose or oral iron, stratified by haemoglobin concentration and site. Intravenous ferric carboxymaltose was administered at a dose determined by the haemoglobin concentration and bodyweight (bodyweight 35 kg to <70 kg and haemoglobin ≥100 g/L: 1000 mg in one dose; bodyweight 35 kg to <70 kg and haemoglobin <100 g/L, or bodyweight ≥70 kg and haemoglobin ≥100 g/L: 1500 mg in two doses at least 7 days apart; bodyweight ≥70 kg and haemoglobin 115 g/L) at 6 weeks. Follow-up visits were at 6 weeks, and 3, 6, and 12 months. Analyses were done in the modified intention-totreat population of participants who had a 6-week haemoglobin concentration result, using logistic and linear regression models for binary and continuous outcomes, adjusted for baseline haemoglobin concentration and site. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02541708. Findings: Between Oct 8, 2015, and March 14, 2017, 533 individuals were screened and 230 were enrolled and randomly assigned to a study group (114 to intravenous iron, 116 to oral iron). At 6 weeks, 94 (82%) participants in the intravenous iron group and 92 (79%) in the oral iron group were assessed for the primary outcome. 75 (80%) participants in the intravenous iron group and 47 (51%) in the oral iron group had normalised haemoglobin (odds ratio 4·65, 95% CI 2·33-9·27). There were two mild to moderate infusion-related adverse events; and five serious adverse events (three in the intravenous iron group, two in the oral iron group), unrelated to the study medication. Interpretation: Intravenous iron substitution with ferric carboxymaltose was safe and yielded a better haemoglobin response than oral iron. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide evidence of the benefits and safety of intravenous iron substitution in a low-income setting

International cohort study for pediatric Behçet’s Disease: update 2011

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