Articles: function.
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Observational Study
Electroencephalographic Biomarkers, Cerebral Oximetry, and Postoperative Cognitive Function in Adult Non-Cardiac Surgical Patients: a Prospective Cohort Study.
Perioperative neurocognitive disorders are a major public health issue, although there are no validated neurophysiologic biomarkers that predict cognitive function after surgery. This study tested the hypothesis that preoperative posterior electroencephalographic alpha power, alpha frontal-parietal connectivity, and cerebral oximetry would each correlate with postoperative neurocognitive function. ⋯ Preoperative posterior alpha power, frontal-parietal connectivity, and cerebral oximetry were not associated with cognitive function after noncardiac surgery.
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Tendon injury accounts for 30% of musculoskeletal diseases and often leads to disability, pain, healthcare cost, and lost productivity. Following injury to tendon, tendon healing proceeds via three overlapping healing processes. However, due to the structural defects of the tendon itself, the tendon healing process is characterized by the formation of excessive fibrotic scar tissue, and injured tendons rarely return to native tendons, which can easily contribute to tendon reinjury. ⋯ However, blockage TGF-β1 fails to effectively enhance tendon healing. A detailed understanding of real abilities of TGF-β1 involved in tendon healing can bring promising perspectives for therapeutic value that improve the tendon healing process. Thus, in this review, we describe recent efforts to identify and characterize the roles and mechanisms of TGF-β1 involved at each stage of the tendon healing and highlight potential roles of TGF-β1 leading to the fibrotic response to tendon injury.
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Neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, are associated with microgliosis. Microglia have long been considered to have detrimental roles in Alzheimer's disease. However, functional analyses of genes encoding risk factors that are linked to late-onset Alzheimer's disease, and that are enriched or exclusively expressed in microglia, have revealed unexpected protective functions. ⋯ Several anti-TREM2 antibodies are in early clinical trials, and current efforts aim to achieve more efficient transport of these antibodies across the blood-brain barrier. PET imaging could be used to monitor target engagement. Data from animal models, and biomarker studies in patients, further support a rationale for boosting TREM2 functions during the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Preoperative planning of compact zone trajectory is necessary in treating osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture with endplate involvement: A prospective randomized controlled study.
This prospective randomized controlled study compares the clinical and radiological outcomes between reduction methods with or without compact trabecular bone during percutaneous kyphoplasty in osteoporotic vertebral fractures. ⋯ Elevating and reinforcing the collapsed endplate rather than just filling the defect during percutaneous kyphoplasty is safe and effective. This technique decreased pain and improved function with lower rates of further collapse of the osteoporotic vertebrae compared to defect-filling alone.
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A critical aspect for most human pain research is the ability of participants to communicate their first-person, experiential perspective to a third-person observer. This communication is frequently accomplished via pain ratings. The scale type can influence the communication of pain experiences and can contribute to gender differences in pain. This study examined the role of gender on pain ratings using noxious and innocuous stimuli across two types of rating scales. ⋯ There are differences in the usage of rating scales in which ratings for auditory, visual and noxious somatosensory stimuli are higher with NRS compared to VAS. Choosing a rating scale for research or clinical use should take this different item functioning into account.