Spinal Cord Injures in Children Observed Over Many Years

The known salient features of spinal cord injuries in children are that 1) plane X-rays may not show dislocations or fractures, 2) many of these injuries are complete transections, 3) many injuries are located at the level of upper thoracic spine, and 4) the duration of spinal shock is short. Complications such as pressure sores occur just as easily in children as in adults and the injuries tend to be just as intractable. Complications characteristic in children with spinal cord injuries are spinal deformity and hip dislocation.　　 In this paper, we describe a case involving a C7 spinal cord injury caused by a fall when the patient was 3 years old. We have observed the physical complications for 15 years following that injury. We also report on other obserbed cases of spinal cord injury

Possibility of Independence in ADL (Activities of Daily Living) for Patients with Cervical Spinal Cord Injuries : An Evaluation based on the Zancolli Classification of Residual Arm Functions

For patients with cervical spinal cord injuries to become independent in their ADL (Activities of Daily Living), residual arm function is very important. Also, age, sex, physical strength, obesity, spasticity, pain, contracture and motivation are related. We investigated the possibility of independence in ADL for patients with cervical spinal cord injuries, carrying out our evaluation based on the Zancolli Classification of Residual Arm Functions. Zancolli classification C6BII is taken as the boundary level for ADL independence. Rehabilitation is not only controlled by the patients with cervical spinal cord injuries themselves but also by the ability of the rehabilitation staff. This implies that taking responsibility in rehabilitation is important

Evaluation of a Rapid Immunochromatographic ODK0501 Assay for Detecting Streptococcus pneumoniae Antigen in Sputum Samples from Patients with Lower Respiratory Tract Infection▿

A novel, rapid, and noninvasive test (ODK0501) to detect Streptococcus pneumoniae antigen was evaluated in a Japanese multicenter study. ODK0501 uses polyclonal antibodies to detect C polysaccharide of S. pneumoniae from sputum samples by an immunochromatographic assay. The utility of ODK0501 was evaluated for 161 adult patients with lower respiratory tract infection between March 2006 and March 2007. Bacterial culture and identification, real-time PCR, and ODK0501 assays were performed on sputum samples, and the Binax Now Streptococcus pneumoniae antigen test was performed using urine samples obtained from the same patients. The performances of all tests were compared based on the results of bacterial culture and identification. The sensitivity and specificity of ODK0501 were 89.1% (49/55 samples) and 95.3% (101/106 samples), respectively. We then compared the Binax Now Streptococcus pneumoniae antigen test with ODK0501 using samples from 142 patients. The sensitivities of ODK0501 and the Binax Now S. pneumoniae antigen test were 90.0% (45/50 samples) and 62.0% (31/50 samples), respectively (P = 0.002). The relative quantity of S. pneumoniae in expectorated sputum was calculated using real-time PCR and indicated that the possibility of false-positive results for ODK0501 due to indigenous S. pneumoniae was low. The positive and negative concordance rates of ODK0501 and Binax Now were 96.8% (30/31 samples) and 21.1% (4/19 samples), respectively. Binax Now was less capable of detecting S. pneumoniae antigen among patients with underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In conclusion, ODK0501 is noninvasive, rapid, and an accurate tool for diagnosing respiratory infection caused by S. pneumoniae