Plos One
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Upper limb recovery is one of the main goals of post-stroke rehabilitation due to its importance for autonomy in Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Although the efficacy of upper limb Robot-assisted Therapy (RT) is well established in literature, the impact of the initial status of the patient on the effects of RT is still understudied. This paper aims to identify whether demographic, clinical and motor characteristics of stroke patients may influence the ability to independently perform ADL after RT. ⋯ Stroke patients with greater manual dexterity and less impairment appear to have a higher probability of achieving clinically significant ADL outcomes after upper limb RT. The obtained results can help to optimise the management of RT treatment planning. Further studies on a larger number of patients with a long-term follow up are recommended in order to evaluate other potential predictors and to validate the results.
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Observational Study
Mid regional pro-adrenomedullin for the prediction of organ failure in infection. Results from a single centre study.
Biomarkers are widely used to confirm the presence of infection. However, it would be of the greatest importance to predict in advance the occurrence or worsening of organ dysfunction in infected patients allowing timely antibiotic escalation. This study investigates the ability of procalcitonin (PCT) and MR-proADM to predict the transition to sepsis in infected patients. ⋯ This was a pivotal study conducted in a single neurointensive centre on a limited number of patients, and as such it does not provide definitive conclusions. PR-proADM predicted occurrence and worsening of organ failure in critically ill patients with and without infection. The combination with infection diagnostic biomarkers such as PCT would allow predicting evolution to sepsis in infected patients.
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Nurses play an important role in maintaining patients' dignity. How to measure patients' dignity and dignity-related distress is an important issue in nursing care. Use of a reliable and valid tool assessing dignity-related distress in patients is necessary. ⋯ As a result of the factor analysis, four factors, including existential distress, loss of support and sense of meaning, symptom distress, and loss of autonomy. Concurrent validity showed that the PDI-MV was significantly correlated with the PHQ-9 (r = 0.25-0.54), DS-MV (r = 0.30-0.58) and the RSES (r = - 0.08 to-0.30), Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the PDI-MV and four factors were 0.95, 0.95, 0.84, 0.83, and 0.89 respectively. The PDI-MV is a psychometrically sound instrument assessing a broad range of dignity-related distress issues in cancer patients.
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Visualization of the complex 3D architecture of myocardial scar could improve guidance of radio-frequency ablation in the treatment of ventricular tachycardia (VT). In this study, we sought to develop a framework for 3D holographic visualization of myocardial scar, imaged using late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), on the augmented reality HoloLens. 3D holographic LGE model was built using the high-resolution 3D LGE image. Smooth endo/epicardial surface meshes were generated using Poisson surface reconstruction. ⋯ Upon completion of the animal study, operator and mapping specialist independently completed the perceived usefulness questionnaire in the six-item usefulness scale. Operator and mapping specialist found it useful (usefulness rating: operator, 5.8; mapping specialist, 5.5; 1-7 scale) to have scar information during the intervention. HoloLens 3D LGE provides a true 3D perception of the complex scar architecture with immersive experience to visualize scar in an interactive and interpretable 3D approach, which may facilitate MR-guided VT ablation.
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To objectively assess pupillary involvement according to various etiologies of acquired isolated third nerve palsy using automated pupillometry, and evaluate the efficacy of digital pupillometry in discriminating compressive lesions from microvascular ischemic third nerve palsy. ⋯ Abnormal pupillary constriction ratio was highly specific for detecting compressive third nerve palsy, although the sensitivity was not high. Digital pupillometry demonstrated relatively good performance for discriminating compressive lesions from microvascular ischemic third nerve palsy.