Return-to-activity after anatomical reconstruction of acute high-grade acromioclavicular separation

BACKGROUND: To evaluate return-to-activity (RtA) after anatomical reconstruction of acute high-grade acromioclavicular joint (ACJ) separation. METHODS: A total of 42 patients with anatomical reconstruction of acute high-grade ACJ-separation (Rockwood Type V) were surveyed to determine RtA at a mean 31 months follow-up (f-u). Sports disciplines, intensity, level of competition, participation in overhead and/or contact sports, as well as activity scales (DASH-Sport-Module, Tegner Activity Scale) were evaluated. Functional outcome evaluation included Constant score and QuickDASH. RESULTS: All patients (42/42) participated in sporting activities at f-u. Neither participation in overhead/contact sports, nor level of activity declined significantly (n.s.). 62 % (n = 26) of patients reported subjective sports specific ACJ integrity to be at least the same as prior to the trauma. Sporting intensity (hours/week: 7.3 h to 5.4 h, p = .004) and level of competition (p = .02) were reduced. If activity changed, in 50 % other reasons but clinical symptoms/impairment were named for modified behavior. QuickDASH (mean 6, range 0–54, SD 11) and DASH-Sport-Module (mean 6, range 0–56, SD 13) revealed only minor disabilities at f-u. Over time Constant score improved significant to an excellent score (mean 94, range 86–100, SD 4; p < .001). Functional outcome was not correlated with RtA (n.s.). CONCLUSION: All patients participated in sporting activities after anatomical reconstruction of high-grade (Rockwood Type V) ACJ-separation. With a high functional outcome there was no significant change in activity level (Tegner) and participation in overhead and/or contact sports observed. There was no correlation between functional outcome and RtA. Limiting, there were alterations in time spent for sporting activities and level of competition observed. But in 50 % those were not related to ACJ symptoms/impairment. Unrelated to successful re-established integrity and function of the ACJ it should be considered that patients decided not return-to-activity but are very content with the procedure

Acromioclavicular joint augmentation at the time of coracoclavicular ligament reconstruction fails to improve functional outcomes despite significantly improved horizontal stability

Purpose: Acromioclavicular joint reconstruction is a well-established and frequently performed procedure. Recent scientific and commercial interest has led to a drive to develop and perform surgical techniques that more reliably restore horizontal stability in order to improve patient outcomes. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the biomechanical evidence for procedures directed at restoring horizontal stability and determine whether they are associated with superior clinical results when compared to well-established procedures. Methods: A review of the online databases Medline and EMBASE was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines on the 23rd December 2017. Biomechanical and clinical studies reporting either static or dynamic horizontal displacement following acromioclavicular joint reconstruction (Coracoclavicular reconstruction or Weaver-Dunn) were included. In addition, biomechanical and clinical studies reporting outcomes after additional augmentation of the acromioclavicular joint were included. The studies were appraised using the Methodological index for non-randomised studies tool. Results: The search strategy identified 18 studies eligible for inclusion: six biomechanical and 12 clinical studies. Comparative biomechanical studies demonstrated that acromioclavicular augmentation provided significantly increased horizontal stability compared to the coracoclavicular reconstruction and Weaver–Dunn procedure. Comparative clinical studies demonstrated no significant differences between coracoclavicular reconstruction with and without acromioclavicular augmentation in terms of functional outcomes (American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeon and Constant score), complication or revision rates. However, one comparative study did demonstrate an improvement in Taft (p = 0.018) and Acromioclavicular Joint Instability scores (p = 0.0001) after acromioclavicular augmentation. Conclusion: In conclusion, coracoclavicular reconstruction with augmentation of the acromioclavicular joint has been shown to provide improved horizontal stability in both biomechanical and clinical studies compared to isolated coracoclavicular reconstruction. However, comparative studies have shown no clinical advantage with respect to American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeon or Constant scores and, therefore, the results of this systematic review do not support acromioclavicular augmentation in routine clinical practice. Level of evidence: IV

Evolution and Spread of Ebola Virus in Liberia, 2014–2015

The 2013–present Western African Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak is the largest ever recorded with >28,000 reported cases. Ebola virus (EBOV) genome sequencing has played an important role throughout this outbreak; however, relatively few sequences have been determined from patients in Liberia, the second worst-affected country. Here, we report 140 EBOV genome sequences from the second wave of the Liberian outbreak and analyze them in combination with 782 previously published sequences from throughout the Western African outbreak. While multiple early introductions of EBOV to Liberia are evident, the majority of Liberian EVD cases are consistent with a single introduction, followed by spread and diversification within the country. Movement of the virus within Liberia was widespread and reintroductions from Liberia served as an important source for the continuation of the already ongoing EVD outbreak in Guinea. Overall, little evidence was found for incremental adaptation of EBOV to the human host.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

The role of unintegrated DNA in HIV infection

Integration of the reverse transcribed viral genome into host chromatin is the hallmark of retroviral replication. Yet, during natural HIV infection, various unintegrated viral DNA forms exist in abundance. Though linear viral cDNA is the precursor to an integrated provirus, increasing evidence suggests that transcription and translation of unintegrated DNAs prior to integration may aid productive infection through the expression of early viral genes. Additionally, unintegrated DNA has the capacity to result in preintegration latency, or to be rescued and yield productive infection and so unintegrated DNA, in some circumstances, may be considered to be a viral reservoir. Recently, there has been interest in further defining the role and function of unintegrated viral DNAs, in part because the use of anti-HIV integrase inhibitors leads to an abundance of unintegrated DNA, but also because of the potential use of non-integrating lentiviral vectors in gene therapy and vaccines. There is now increased understanding that unintegrated viral DNA can either arise from, or be degraded through, interactions with host DNA repair enzymes that may represent a form of host antiviral defence. This review focuses on the role of unintegrated DNA in HIV infection and additionally considers the potential implications for antiviral therapy

Humans optional? Automatic large-scale test collections for entity, passage, and entity-passage retrieval

Manually creating test collections is a time-, effort-, and cost-intensive process. This paper describes a fully automatic alternative for deriving large-scale test collections, where no human assessments are needed. The empirical experiments confirm that automatic test collection and manual assessments agree on the best performing systems. The collection includes relevance judgments for both text passages and knowledge base entities. Since test collections with relevance data for both entity and text passages are rare, this approach provides a cost-efficient way for training and evaluating ad hoc passage retrieval, entity retrieval, and entity-aware text retrieval methods