Satisfaction and adherence of patients with amputations to physiotherapy service at public hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Background: Individuals who have undergone a lower limb amputation require comprehensive rehabilitation from the multidisciplinary team to ensure optimal treatment outcomes and social integration. Physiotherapists play a pivotal role within the multidisciplinary team and offer patients physical and psychosocial rehabilitative care. Determining patients’ satisfaction levels and exploring factors affecting adherence to physiotherapy interventions can inform practice and improve service delivery of rehabilitation within resource poor settings such as South Africa.Objectives: To determine the level of satisfaction with physiotherapy services rendered to acute and sub-acute in-patients with lower limb amputations and to explore factors affecting adherence to physiotherapy intervention.Methods: A prospective survey of 35 patients with lower limb amputations from four public hospitals in South Africa was undertaken. A modified version of the Hampstead rehabilitation centre patient satisfaction questionnaire was utilised.Results: Majority of participants were satisfied with the physiotherapy services whilst a few reported dissatisfaction. Three themes emerged whilst exploring the patients’ experience relating to adherence to physiotherapy programmes. Themes included service delivery, patient-therapist interaction and participation barriers and facilitators.Conclusion: Recommendations aimed to improve quality of care and healthcare outcomes thereby enhancing the participants’ adherence to the physiotherapy programme.Keywords: amputation, patient satisfaction, patient adherence, physiotherapy

Epidermal growth factor receptors in intracranial and breast tumours: their clinical significance.

A method to determine the binding of epidermal growth factor (EGF) to the particulate fraction of the cell has been established and evaluated using rat liver, human placenta, and tumours of human breast and brain. Little EGF receptor (EGFR) activity was detected in normal or benign tumour tissues except for meningioma (positive in 95% samples), but EGFR were present in 43% of 131 breast tumours and 75% of 55 primary cerebral tumours. Despite the strong inverse correlation between EGFR activity and oestrogen receptors in breast tumours and a tendency for high levels of EGFR activity to be associated with glioblastoma multiforme, analysis showed that EGFR was of little prognostic significance in patients with tumours of either breast or brain

Anti-LRP/LR specific antibody IgG1-iS18 impedes adhesion and invasion of liver cancer cells.

Two key events, namely adhesion and invasion, are pivotal to the occurrence of metastasis. Importantly, the 37 kDa/67 kDa laminin receptor (LRP/LR) has been implicated in enhancing these two events thus facilitating cancer progression. In the current study, the role of LRP/LR in the adhesion and invasion of liver cancer (HUH-7) and leukaemia (K562) cells was investigated. Flow cytometry revealed that the HUH-7 cells displayed significantly higher cell surface LRP/LR levels compared to the poorly-invasive breast cancer (MCF-7) control cells, whilst the K562 cells displayed significantly lower cell surface LRP/LR levels in comparison to the MCF-7 control cells. However, Western blotting and densitometric analysis revealed that all three tumorigenic cell lines did not differ significantly with regards to total LRP/LR levels. Furthermore, treatment of liver cancer cells with anti-LRP/LR specific antibody IgG1-iS18 (0.2 mg/ml) significantly reduced the adhesive potential of cells to laminin-1 and the invasive potential of cells through the ECM-like Matrigel, whilst leukaemia cells showed no significant differences in both instances. Additionally, Pearson's correlation coefficients suggested direct proportionality between cell surface LRP/LR levels and the adhesive and invasive potential of liver cancer and leukaemia cells. These findings suggest the potential use of anti-LRP/LR specific antibody IgG1-iS18 as an alternative therapeutic tool for metastatic liver cancer through impediment of the LRP/LR- laminin-1 interaction.National Research Foundation.NCS201

The Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS)

The CLASS experiment on Chandrayaan-2, the second Indian lunar mission, aims tomap the abundance of the major rock forming elements on the lunar surface using the technique of X-ray fluorescence during solar flare events. CLASS is a continuation of the successful C1XS [1] XRF experiment on Chandrayaan-1. CLASS is designed to provide lunar mapping of elemental abundances with a nominal spatial resolution of 25 km (FWHM) from a 200 km polar, circular orbit of Chandrayaan-2