Towards a greater dialogue on disability between Muslims and Christians

Attitudes to disability and disabled people by Muslims – focusing on attitudes in the Middle East and North Africa - and Christians – focusing on the West (here taken to mean Europe, North America and Australasia) - were examined through a grounded theory literature search, with the study being divided into three phases of reading and analysis. The aims of study were to develop a dialogue on disability between the two cultures, to inform an understanding of the attitudes to disability in the two cultures, and to inform cultural practice in promoting support and equality in both cultures. The study finds that Islam and Christianity have much in common and are a force for good in promoting and developing disability equality in both Muslim and Christian cultures

Granular cell myoblastoma of the bronchus. Case report and literature review

A case of multiple granular cell myoblastomas of the tracheobronchial tree is presented. The patient is well 32 months following endobronchial removal. Only 46 cases of solitary and two cases of multiple lesions of the tracheobronchial tree have been described in the literature. These lesions occur with equal frequency in men and women; at a median age of 38 years; more frequently on the right than on the left; and most commonly with cough as the presenting symptom. Most patients have been treated with major surgical resections, but conservative endobronchial removal may be effective therapy

1kHz 2D silicon retina motion sensor platform

This paper proposes an optical motion sensor aimed towards small robotic platforms. It incorporates a 20×20 pixel continuous-time CMOS silicon retina vision sensor with pixels that have local gain control and adapt to background lighting and a DSP microcontroller which computes the global optical flow from the sampled sensor output. The system allows the user to validate various motion algorithms suitable for the platform. Measurements are presented that show that the system can compute global 2D translational motion from complex natural scenes using the image interpolation algorithm at a sample rate of 1 kHz and for speeds up to ±1000 pixels/s using <;5k instruction cycles per frame

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration and Trucut biopsy in thoracic lesions: when tissue is the issue

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS FNA) has a high accuracy in the evaluation of mediastinal lesions. The use of a core biopsy needle for EUS guided biopsy (EUS TCB) may further improve the yield of EUS. The aims of this study are to evaluate the safety of EUS TCB in thoracic lesions and to compare the diagnostic accuracy of TCB with FNA and FNA + TCB. A single-center retrospective study. All patients underwent EUS-FNA and TCB. A cytopathologist was not present during the procedure. EUS FNA, TCB and FNA + TCB diagnostic accuracy were compared. A total of 48 patients were included. The lesions sampled included 41 lymph nodes (six aorto-pulmonary window, 32 subcarinal, two right paratracheal, one paraesophageal ATS station 8), five lung masses, and two esophageal masses. Twenty-nine patients had malignant disease and 19 had benign disorders. The overall diagnostic accuracy of FNA, TCB and FNA + TCB was 79%, 79% and 98% respectively (p = 0.007). TCB changed the diagnosis in nine cases missed by FNA. EUS TCB was better than FNA for benign diseases (89% vs. 63%, p = 0.04). All eight patients with a prior failed biopsy had a correct diagnosis established by EUS. No patient required mediastinoscopy or thoracoscopy after EUS. The combination of TCB and FNA is superior to FNA alone. EUS-guided TCB should be considered in patients with benign disorders of the mediastinum when other modalities fail to yield a diagnosis

Disruption of proximal aortosaphenous vein anastomosis. Late complication of aortocoronary bypass surgery

A 43-year-old man who had undergone aortocoronary saphenous vein bypass developed disruption of the proximal aorto-saphenous vein anastomosis. Although rare, a mediastinal hematoma secondary to leakage or disruption of an anastomotic site should be considered in patients who develop a mediastinal mass after aortocoronary bypass surgery

Surgical treatment of lung cancer in patients with human immunodeficiency virus

Since January 1986, more than 20 patients have been seen at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center and the Miami Veterans Administration Medical Center with concurrent human immunodeficiency virus infection and bronchogenic carcinoma. Four of these patients were treated surgically with curative intent. The histories, records, operative reports, and pathology reports of the 4 patients were reviewed. The 4 surgically treated patients had stage I T1 N0 M0 lung cancer. Three patients had T4 cell counts of less than 200/μL and were managed by lobectomy. These patients died 5, 3 1/2, and 5 months postoperatively. More recently, a fourth patient had a T4 cell count of 963/μL and was treated with wedge resection. He is currently alive 12 months postoperatively. It is concluded that surgically treated patients with lung cancer, human immunodeficiency virus infection, and T4 cell counts lower than 200/μL have high mortality and morbidity. Although it may be best to base surgical intervention on the stage of the patient's human immunodeficiency virus infection, further analysis is essential to determine which subgroup of human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients, if any, would benefit from surgical treatment of lung cancer