Quality of Life in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is a complex and serious disease that can affect all age groups around the world. There is no prevalence differentiation between developed and developing countries. Preeclampsia, maternal trauma, low birth weight, gestational age, birth asphyxia, intrauterine infection, etc. can also be included in the list of risk factors. Functional limitations, self‐care difficulties, behavioral problems, seizures, cognitive, sensory, social and emotional impairments and difficulties of daily life activities can affect health‐related quality of life in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy. So, it is important to evaluate health‐related quality of life in cerebral palsy. It is stated that there are many generic instruments to evaluate health‐related quality of life. However, using specific instruments for cerebral palsy is more sensitive than generic instruments to evaluate effect of cerebral palsy in children\u27s health‐related quality of life. The aim of this chapter is to investigate health‐related quality of life instruments in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy

Quality of Life in Venous Diseases of the Lower Limbs

Chronic venous diseases of the lower limbs are one of the common and disabling conditions with clinical signs and symptoms ranging from spider veins, to varicose veins or even to venous ulceration, effecting patient’s quality of life negatively, particularly in relation to the domains of pain, physical function and mobility. It is not only a serious medical condition but also an undeniable physical and psychosocial problem and has a severe impact on a patient’s quality of life. Quality of life is defined as individuals’ perception of their position in life and refers to the patient’s ability to enjoy normal life activities. It is a common and subjective term that has a number of dimensions described as patient‐reported outcomes. There are numerous factors that affect person’s quality of life negatively. Some of those are social relationships, economic status, physical health, psychological status, environmental conditions (living place or work), pain and especially chronic diseases. We conducted a review about quality of life in chronic venous diseases of the lower limbs to identify how person’s quality of life is affected. Therefore, this chapter will focus on the effect of the chronic venous diseases on the person’s quality of life

Thyroid malignancy in children: where does it locate?

ABSTRACT Objective: As far as we know, in English literature, a limited number of studies has examined the relationship between the location of the nodule and malignancy risk. The studies were performed with adults and their results were mainly inconsistent. We aim to evaluate the potential association between the location of the thyroid nodules and risk for malignancy in the pediatric population. Materials and methods: Patients younger than 18 years old with a pathological diagnosis were included. Nodules were divided into 5 categories according to the Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS) algorithm. The location of the nodules was recorded: Right lobe, left lobe, isthmus, upper pole, lower pole, and middle. Thyroid glands were divided into 3 equal longitudinal areas to define upper, lower, and middle portions. Results: Ninety-seven nodules of 103 children were included. The mean age of the population was 14.9 ± 2.51 years (7-18 years). Eighty-one participants were female (83.5%) and 16 male (16.5%). Fifty nodules were benign (51.5%) and 47 nodules were malignant (48.5%). We did not detect a significant correlation between the risk of malignancy and location of the nodule as right or left lobes or isthmus (P = 0.38). Rate of malignant nodules were significantly higher in middle lobe (23%, P = 0.002). Being located at middle part of thyroid gland increases the possibility of malignancy 11.3 times (OR = 11.3, P = 0.006). Conclusion: Nodule location can be used as a predictor for thyroid malignancy in pediatric patients, similar to adults. Middle lobe location increases the risk of malignancy. Using nodule location along with TI-RADS categorization can increase the efficacy of malignancy prediction

An evaluation of a novel approach for clustering genes with dissimilar replicates

Clustering the genes is a step in microarray studies which demands several considerations. First, the expression levels can be collected as time-series which should be accounted for appropriately. Furthermore, genes may behave differently in different biological replicates due to their genetic backgrounds. Highlighting such genes may deepen the study; however, it introduces further complexities for clustering. The third concern stems from the existence of a large amount of constant genes which demands a heavy computational burden. Finally, the number of clusters is not known in advance; therefore, a clustering algorithm should be able to recommend meaningful number of clusters. In this study, we evaluate a recently proposed clustering algorithm that promises to address these issues with a simulation study. The methodology accepts each gene as a combination of its replications and accounts for the time dependency. Furthermore, it computes cluster validation scores to suggest possible numbers of clusters. Results show that the methodology is able to find the clusters and highlight the genes with differences among the replications, separate the constant genes to reduce the computational burden, and suggest meaningful number of clusters. Furthermore, our results show that traditional distance metrics are not efficient in clustering the short time-series correctly.</p

Clustering of short time-course gene expression data with dissimilar replicates

Microarrays are used in genetics and medicine to examine large numbers of genes simultaneously through their expression levels under any condition such as a disease of interest. The information from these experiments can be enriched by following the expression levels through time and biological replicates. The purpose of this study is to propose an algorithm which clusters the genes with respect to the similarities between their behaviors through time. The algorithm is also aimed at highlighting the genes which show different behaviors between the replicates and separating the constant genes that keep their baseline expression levels throughout the study. Finally, we aim to feature cluster validation techniques to suggest a sensible number of clusters when it is not known a priori. The illustrations show that the proposed algorithm in this study offers a fast approach to clustering the genes with respect to their behavior similarities, and also separates the constant genes and the genes with dissimilar replicates without any need for pre-processing. Moreover, it is also successful at suggesting the correct number of clusters when that is not known

Ultrasound guided continuous paravertebral block in a patient with coronary heart disease and sleep apnea syndrome

The case of a 77-year-old patient with severe coronary heart disease who underwent radical mastectomy with axillary lymph node dissection by ultrasound-guided continuous paravertebral block (CPVB) is described in the present report. Radical mastectomy with axillary dissection is a surgical procedure that necessitates endotracheal intubation and is usually performed under general anesthesia, which carries heightened risk for patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and sleep apnea syndrome (SAS). Ultrasound-guided CPVB is a simple and safe alternative technique that allows for the use of anesthesia and postoperative analgesia with minimal side effects

The Effect of Lidocaine on Injection Pain of Different Propofol Concentrations in Patients Receiving Remifentanil

Objective: The effectivity of remifentanil and lidocaine combination on the injection pain with 1% propofol was reported previously. However, this finding has not been investigated with different propofol concentrations. In this prospective, randomized, double-blind trial, we aimed to compare the effect of lidocaine on the injection pain of 1% or 2% propofol in patients receiving remifentanil. Material and Methods: One hundred patients undergoing ear-nose-throat surgery were randomly assigned into four groups (n= 25 each). Following 0.5 mu g/kg/min remifentanil, patients in Group 1 and Group 2 received 1 mg.kg(-1) 1% or 2% propofol the mixed with 2 mL of saline, respectively. Patients in Group 3 and Group 4 received 1 mg.kg(-1) 1% or 2% propofol mixed with 2 mL of 2% lidocaine after 0.5 mu g kg(-1) min(-1) remifentanil. Pain during the injection of propofol was assessed on a four-point scale (0= none, 1= mild, 2= moderate, 3= severe) Results: The incidence of none-mild pain on injection of 1% propofol was significantly lower in Group 1 (56%) compared to Group 3 (100%) (p= 0.00017). This finding was also seen between Group 2 (36%) and Group 4 (72%) (p= 0.010). However, the number of patients suffering from the injection pain was significantly greater in Group 4 compared to Group 3 (p= 0.004). Conclusion: Lidocaine 2% 2 mL mixed with propofol completely abolished moderate-severe pain induced by 1% propofol in patients who were given 0.5 mu g/kg/min remifentanil. However, some patients still suffered from injection pain caused by 2% propofol in spite of the combined effect of lidocaine and remifentanil

Nickel(II)-PPh3 Complexes of S,N-Substituted Thiosemicarbazones - Structure, DFT Study, and Catalytic Efficiency

Five 2-hydroxyacetophenone thiosemicarbazones with [-(NH)-H-4-R-(SH)J (where R is ethyl or phenyl) and [-(NH)-H-4-R- (SR1)] (where R/R-1 denote methyl/methyl, methyl/propyl, or phenyl/methyl) substituents on the thioamide group were synthesized. The ligands have an ONS or ONN donor set, and the reaction of the dibasic ligands with [Ni(PPh3)(2)Cl-2] yields chelate complexes with general formula [Ni(L)(PPh3)]. The stable solid complexes were characterized by IR and H-1 NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The crystallographic structures of two complexes, one with an S-methyl-N-4-phenyl- and the other with an S-propyl-N-4-methyl-substituted thiosemicarbazidato ligand, are reported. The complexes crystallize in the monoclinic space group P2(1)/n, and the nickel centers have a distorted square planar environment. The coupling reaction of phenylmagnesium bromide with bromobenzene was used to determine the catalytic activities of the nickel(11) complexes prepared, and the results show that the ONN complexes provide higher yields relative to those with ONS donors. The catalytic efficiency of the nickel complexes was modeled by using density functional theory (DFT)

Comparison of cognitive functions in bipolar disorder patients with and without comorbid borderline personality disorder

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare patients with bipolar disorder type I (BD) with and without comorbid borderline personality disorder (BPD), in euthymic period, in terms of cognitive functions. The main hypotesis of this study was that cognitive functions would be more impaired in patients with BD with comorbid BPD (BD + BPD). Methods: The structured clinical interviews for diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-IV axis I disorders (SCID-I and SCID-II) were administered to 105 patients and the patients were separated into two groups as 79 BD patients and 26 BD plus BPD patients. Young Mania Rating Scale, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, California verbal learning test, Wisconsin card sorting test, trail-making test (TMT), and stroop test were administered to the both groups. Results: BD with comorbid BPD group showed statistically significantly lower performance in the average scores of TMT-A seconds and errors, and TMT-B seconds scores than the BD group (respectively t = −3.449, p = .001; t = −3.431, p = .001; t = −2.331, p = .022). Conclusions: The processing speed, set shifting, and selective attention in BD with comorbid BPD group is more disturbed than the BD group. We suggest that when evaluating the cognitive functions, evaluation of comorbid psychiatric diagnosis, especially BPD, is crucial in BD