A diagnostic support tool for lumbar spinal stenosis: a self-administered, self-reported history questionnaire

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is no validated gold-standard diagnostic support tool for LSS, and therefore an accurate diagnosis depends on clinical assessment. Assessment of the diagnostic value of the history of the patient requires an evaluation of the differences and overlap of symptoms of the radicular and cauda equina types; however, no tool is available for evaluation of the LSS category. We attempted to develop a self-administered, self-reported history questionnaire as a diagnostic support tool for LSS using a clinical epidemiological approach. The aim of the present study was to use this tool to assess the diagnostic value of the history of the patient for categorization of LSS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The initial derivation study included 137 patients with LSS and 97 with lumbar disc herniation who successfully recovered following surgical treatment. The LSS patients were categorized into radicular and cauda equina types based on history, physical examinations, and MRI. Predictive factors for overlapping symptoms between the two types and for cauda equina symptoms in LSS were derived by univariate analysis. A self-administered, self-reported history questionnaire (SSHQ) was developed based on these findings. A prospective derivation study was then performed in a series of 115 patients with LSS who completed the SSHQ before surgery. All these patients recovered following surgical treatment. The sensitivity of the SSHQ was calculated and clinical prediction rules for LSS were developed. A validation study was subsequently performed on 250 outpatients who complained of lower back pain with or without leg symptoms. The sensitivity and specificity of the SSHQ were calculated, and the test-retest reliability over two weeks was investigated in 217 patients whose symptoms remained unchanged.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The key predictive factors for overlapping symptoms between the two categories of LSS were age > 50, lower-extremity pain or numbness, increased pain when walking, increased pain when standing, and relief of symptoms on bending forward (odds ratio ≥ 2, p < 0.05). The key predictive factors for cauda equina type symptoms were numbness around the buttocks, walking almost causes urination, a burning sensation around the buttocks, numbness in the soles of both feet, numbness in both legs, and numbness without pain (odds ratio ≥ 2, p < 0.05). The sensitivity and specificity of the SSHQ were 84% and 78%, respectively, in the validation data set. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.797 in the derivation set and 0.782 in the validation data set. In the test-retest analysis, the intraclass correlation coefficient for the first and second tests was 85%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A new self-administered, self-reported history questionnaire was developed successfully as a diagnostic support tool for LSS.</p

文章からの化学物質名を含む単語の認識法の確立と化学物質名の選択法の検討 : 特許公開公報を用いて

化学物質名は，多様であり，記載法も書き手に委ねられているため自動抽出が難しく化学知識の共有化を妨げている．化学物質名を自動抽出できれば，共有化に役立つ．日本語の化学物質名を抽出するために，化学物質名をタグ付けした特許公開公報のコーパスの作成を行い，文章から形態素の切り出し，切り出した形態素の連結をすることによる化学物質名の認識法を確立した．あわせて連結した単語群から化学物質名を選択する方法の基礎的な検討，及び化学物質名と間違えやすい置換基名との選択比較も行った

Effect of Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on a Child with Involuntary Movement after Hypoxic Encephalopathy

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation to the supplementary motor area to inhibit involuntary movements of a child. An 8-year-old boy who developed hypoxic encephalopathy after asphyxia at the age of 2 had difficulty in remaining standing without support because of involuntary movements. He was instructed to remain standing with his plastic ankle-foot orthosis for 10 s at three time points by leaning forward with his forearms on a desk. He received cathodal or sham transcranial direct current stimulation to the supplementary motor area at 1 mA for 10 min. Involuntary movements during standing were measured using an accelerometer attached to his forehead. The low-frequency power of involuntary movements during cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation significantly decreased compared with that during sham stimulation. No adverse effects were observed. Involuntary movement reduction by cathodal stimulation to supplementary motor areas suggests that stimulations modulated the corticobasal ganglia motor circuit. Cathodal stimulation to supplementary motor areas may be effective for reducing involuntary movements and may be safely applied to children with movement disorders

Land mobile satellite propagation measurements in Japan using ETS-V satellite

Propagation characteristics of land mobile satellite communications channels have been investigated actively in recent years. Information of propagation characteristics associated with multipath fading and shadowing is required to design commercial land mobile satellite communications systems, including protocol and error correction method. CRL (Communications Research Laboratory) has carried out propagation measurements using the Engineering Test Satellite-V (ETS-V) at L band (1.5 GHz) through main roads in Japan by a medium gain antenna with an autotracking capability. This paper presents the propagation statistics obtained in this campaign

Manipulation of Non-classical Atomic Spin States

We report successful manipulation of non-classical atomic spin states. We generate squeezed spin states by a spin quantum nondemolition measurement, and apply an off-resonant circularly-polarized light pulse to the atoms. By changing the pulse duration, we have clearly observed a rotation of anisotropic quantum noise distribution in good contrast with the case of manipulation of a coherent spin state where the quantum noise distribution is always isotropic. This is an important step for quantum state tomography, quantum swapping, and precision spectroscopic measurement