Consumers' perception of the efficacy And tolerance of glucosamine in joint diseases

Introduction: In Australia, 18% of the population, experience or are diagnosed with some form of joints diseases (IJD) such as arthritis. The average cost of arthritis treatment per person per year is reported as Au$6200; 61% of arthritis costs are covered by the individuals themselves. Glucosamine is a complementary or alternative medicine used in the treatment of Inflammatory Joint Disease (IJD). Aim: The aim of this study was to explore consumers’ perception of the efficacy and tolerance of glucosamine preparations in IJD. Method: A 20-question survey was administered to members of the public to capture their experience of the efficacy, the side-effects of glucosamine and to investigate if it was prescribed or self-selected. Also, which glucosamine salt was used, for how long it was used and at what dose? Results: From 87 participants, 91.9% stated that glucosamine reduced their pain and 91.7% stated that it improved their joint movement. In 46.5% participants pain reduced by 3-4 points and in 51.7% joints movement improved by 1-2 points. Glucosamine was used by 60% for 6 months or more where improvement in pain and joint function by at least 1- point was reported. Six participants reported glucosamine was not effective. There were no reports of glucosamine intolerance. Five participants diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis; reported improvement in pain and joint movement by up to 2-points after taking daily 1500mg of Glucosamine Sulphate for over 6 months. Discussion: This study provided insight on the possible benefits of glucosamine in relieving pain and joints function associated with arthritis. Most studies reviewed that reported effectiveness of glucosamine used glucosamine sulphate whilst those deemed glucosamine ineffective had used the hydrochloride formulation. No research has been conducted on the antioxidant activity of glucosamine in all IJD. Conclusion: Five out of 87 participants had rheumatoid arthritis reported they found it was effective. It is therefore recommended that further research be conducted to measure the efficacy of glucosamine in treatment of different types of IJD and examining its antioxidant property

Re: consumers report value of Glucosamine for rheumatoid arthritis

Final publication is available from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/acm.2017.015

Radiofrequency catheter ablation of supraventricular tachycardia substrates after mustard and senning operations for d-transposition of the great arteries

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy and risks of radiofrequency ablation of various forms of supraventricular tachycardia after Mustard and Senning operations for d-transposition of the great arteries. BACKGROUND In this patient group, the reported success rate of catheter ablation of intraatrial reentry tachycardia is about 70% with a negligible complication rate. There are no reports of the use of radiofrequency ablation to treat other types of supraventricular tachycardia. METHODS Standard diagnostic criteria were used to determine supraventricular tachycardia type. Appropriate sites for attempted ablation included 1) intraatrial reentry tachycardia: presence of concealed entrainment with a postpacing interval similar to tachycardia cycle length; 2) focal atrial tachycardia: a P-A interval ≤-20 ms; and 3) typical variety of atrioventricular (AV) node reentry tachycardia: combined electrographic and radiographic features. RESULTS Nine Mustard and two Senning patients underwent 13 studies to successfully ablate all supraventricular tachycardia substrates in eight (73%) patients. Eight of eleven (73%) patients having intraatrial reentry tachycardia, 3/3 having typical AV node reentry tachycardia, and 2/2 having focal atrial reentry tachycardia were successfully ablated. Among five patients having intraatrial reentry tachycardia (IART) and not having ventriculoatrial (V-A) conduction, two suffered high-grade AV block when ablation of the systemic venous portion of the medial tricuspid valve/inferior vena cava isthmus was attempted. CONCLUSIONS Radiofrequency catheter ablation can be effectively and safely performed for certain supraventricular tachycardia types in addition to intraatrial reentry. A novel catheter course is required for slow pathway modification. High-grade AV block is a potential risk of lesions placed in the systemic venous medial isthmus

Comparison of automated post-processing techniques for measurement of body surface area from 3D photonic scans

Body surface area (BSA) measurement is important in engineering and medicine fields to determine parameters for various applications. Three-dimensional scanning techniques may be used to acquire the BSA directly. Nevertheless, the raw data obtained from 3D scanning usually requires some manual post-processing which is time-consuming and requires technical expertise. Automated post-processing of 3D scans enables expedient BSA calculation with minimal technical expertise. The purpose of this research was to compare the accuracy and reliability of three different automated post-processing techniques including Stitched Puppet (SP), Poisson surface reconstruction (PSR), and screened Poisson surface reconstruction (SPSR) using manual post-processing as the criterion. Twenty-nine participants were scanned twice, and raw data were processed with the manual operation and automated techniques to acquire BSAs separately. The reliability of BSAs acquired from these approaches was represented by the relative technical error of measurements (TEM). Pearson’s regressions were applied to correct BSAs acquired from the automated techniques. The limits of agreement (LOA) were used to quantify the accuracy of BSAs acquired from the automated techniques and corrected by regression models. The reliability (relative TEM) of BSAs obtained from PSR, SPSR and SP were 0.32%, 0.30%, 0.82% respectively. After removing bias with the regression models, the LOA for PSR, SPSR and SP were (-0.0134 m2, 0.0135 m2), ±0.0131 m2, ±0.0573 m2 respectively. It is concluded that PSR and SPSR are good alternative approaches to manual post-processing for applications that need reliable and accurate measurements of BSAs with large populations

Functional Brain Imaging of Young, Nondemented, and Demented Older Adults

Brain imaging based on functional MRI (fMRI) provides a powerful tool for characterizing age-related changes in functional anatomy. However, between-population comparisons confront potential differences in measurement properties. The present experiment explores the feasibility of conducting fMRI studies in nondemented and demented older adults by measuring hemodynamic response properties in an event-related design. A paradigm involving repeated presentation of sensory-motor response trials was administered to 41 participants (14 young adults, 14 nondemented older adults, and 13 demented older adults). For half of the trials a single sensory-motor event was presented in isolation and in the other half in pairs. Hemodynamic response characteristics to the isolated events allowed basic response properties (e.g., amplitude and variance) between subject groups to be contrasted. The paired events further allowed the summation properties of the hemodynamic response to be characterized. Robust and qualitatively similar activation maps were produced for all subject groups. Quantitative results showed that for certain regions, such as in the visual cortex, there were marked reductions in the amplitude of the hemodynamic response in older adults. In other regions, such as in the motor cortex, relatively intact response characteristics were observed. These results suggest caution should be exhibited in interpreting simple main effects in response amplitude between subject groups. However, across all regions examined, the summation of the hemodynamic response over trials was highly similar between groups. This latter finding suggests that, even if absolute measurement differences do exist between subject groups, relative activation change should be preserved. Designs that rely on group interactions between task conditions, parametric manipulations, or group interactions between regions should provide valuable data for making inferences about functional-anatomic changes between different populations.Psycholog

Intraoperative monitoring of visual evoked potentials in patients undergoing transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary adenoma: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Transsphenoidal surgery is the gold standard for pituitary adenoma resection. Although rare, a serious complication of surgery is worsened vision post-operatively. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether, in patients undergoing transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary adenoma, intraoperative monitoring of visual evoked potentials (VEP) is a safe, reproducible, and effective technological adjunct in predicting postoperative visual function. METHODS: The PubMed and OVID platforms were searched between January 1993 and December 2020 to identify publications that (1) featured patients undergoing transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary adenoma, (2) used intraoperative optic nerve monitoring with VEP and (3) reported on safety or effectiveness. Reference lists were cross-checked and expert opinion sought to identify further publications. RESULTS: Eleven studies were included comprising ten case series and one prospective cohort study. All employed techniques to improve reliability. No safety issues were reported. The only comparative study included described a statistically significant improvement in post-operative visual field testing when VEP monitoring was used. The remaining case-series varied in conclusion. In nine studies, surgical manipulation was halted in the event of a VEP amplitude decrease suggesting a widespread consensus that this is a warning sign of injury to the anterior optic apparatus. CONCLUSIONS: Despite limited and low-quality published evidence regarding intra-operative VEP monitoring, our review suggests that it is a safe, reproducible, and increasingly effective technique of predicting postoperative visual deficits. Further studies specific to transsphenoidal surgery are required to determine its utility in protecting visual function in the resection of complex pituitary tumours

Compressed Sensing for Multidimensional Spectroscopy Experiments

Compressed sensing is a processing method that significantly reduces the number of measurements needed to accurately resolve signals in many fields of science and engineering. We develop a two-dimensional variant of compressed sensing for multidimensional spectroscopy and apply it to experimental data. For the model system of atomic rubidium vapor, we find that compressed sensing provides an order-of-magnitude (about 10-fold) improvement in spectral resolution along each dimension, as compared to a conventional discrete Fourier transform, using the same data set. More attractive is that compressed sensing allows for random undersampling of the experimental data, down to less than 5% of the experimental data set, with essentially no loss in spectral resolution. We believe that by combining powerful resolution with ease of use, compressed sensing can be a powerful tool for the analysis and interpretation of ultrafast spectroscopy data.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog