Search results for " Character"

Reduced Neck Muscle Strength and Altered Muscle Mechanical Properties in Cervical Dystonia Following Botulinum Neurotoxin Injections : A Prospective …

2016

Cervical dystonia (CD) is a focal dystonia causing involuntary activation of neck and shoulder muscles resulting in abnormal, sustained and painful posturing that may lead to physical disability and social withdrawal [1]. In recent years, botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) has become the first line therapy for CD [2]. A subjective feeling of neck weakness has been reported as one of the most common localized adverse events of BoNT [2-7]. In clinical practice, this may sometimes be reported as having difficulty keeping the head upright. Although the effects of BoNT have been widely studied [2,5], there have been no prospective studies quantifying changes in maximal isometric neck muscle strength. O…

Narratives of Patients with Fatal Outcomes During the Phase 2 TITAN and Phase 3 HERCULES Studies

2019

Background: Acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (aTTP) is a rare but life-threatening thrombotic microangiopathy, with an untreated mortality rate of >90%. Prompt treatment with therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) and immunosuppression improves outcomes in patients with aTTP, but 10-20% of patients still die acutely from this disease. The aim of this analysis was to describe in more detail the characteristics and disease courses of the patients who died during the caplacizumab clinical development program. Methods: Patient narratives on all deaths occurring during the phase 2 TITAN and phase 3 HERCULES studies were extracted. Results: In the overall study periods, a total of 6 pat…

2020

Background: Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is frequently used with computed tomography perfusion imaging (CTP) to evaluate whether endovascular vasospasm treatment is indicated for subarachnoid hemorrhage patients with delayed cerebral ischemia. However, objective parameters for CTA evaluation are lacking. In this study, we used an automated, investigator-independent, digital method to detect vasospasm, and we evaluated whether the method could predict the need for subsequent endovascular vasospasm treatment. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the charts and analyzed imaging data for 40 consecutive patients with subarachnoid hemorrhages. The cerebrovascular trees were digitally rec…

2019

We investigated the ability of energy expenditure, movement sensing, and muscle activity to discriminate sedentary and non-sedentary activities in children. Thirty-five 7-11-year-old children participated in the study. Simultaneous assessment of oxygen uptake (VO2), triaxial accelerometry, and thigh muscle electromyography (EMG) were performed during eight different sedentary and non-sedentary activities including lying down, sitting-, standing-, and walking-related activities, which were performed in a random order. Mean values of VO2, accelerometry, and EMG from the concurrent 2 min epochs during each activity were computed. Resting energy expenditure (REE) was measured during 30 min supi…

Tensiomyographical responsiveness to peripheral fatigue in quadriceps femoris

2020

Background Fatigue influences athletic performance and can also increase the risk of injury in sports, and most of the methods to evaluate it require an additional voluntary effort. Tensiomyography (TMG), which uses electrical stimulation and a displacement sensor to evaluate muscle contraction properties of one or more muscle bellies, has emerged as a technique that can assess the presence of peripheral and central fatigue without requiring additional voluntary efforts. However, the evaluation of the TMG’s ability to detect fatigue is limited, both at the level of muscle bellies and statistical methods. Thus, the aim of the present study was twofold: (i) to examine and compare the tensiom…

Fatty liver indexandhepatic steatosis index for prediction ofnon-alcoholic fatty liver disease in type 1 diabetes

2017

Background and Aim Little is known about the diagnostic value of hepatic steatosis index (HSI) and fatty liver index (FLI), as well as their link to metabolic syndrome in type 1 diabetes mellitus. We have screened the effectiveness of FLI and HSI in an observational pilot study of 40 patients with type 1 diabetes. Methods FLI and HSI were calculated for 201 patients with type 1 diabetes. Forty patients with FLI/HSI values corresponding to different risk of liver steatosis were invited for liver magnetic resonance study. In-phase/opposed-phase technique of magnetic resonance was used. Accuracy of indices was assessed from the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Results Tw…

Deep Learning Predicts Molecular Subtype of Muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer from Conventional Histopathological Slides.

2020

Abstract Background Muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is the second most common genitourinary malignancy, and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Recently, molecular subtypes of MIBC have been identified, which have important clinical implications. Objective In the current study, we tried to predict the molecular subtype of MIBC samples from conventional histomorphology alone using deep learning. Design, setting, and participants Two cohorts of patients with MIBC were used: (1) The Cancer Genome Atlas Urothelial Bladder Carcinoma dataset including 407 patients and (2) our own cohort including 16 patients with treatment-naive, primary resected MIBC. This resulted in a total …

A noninvasive postoperative clinical score to identify patients at risk for postoperative pulmonary complications: The air-test score

2020

BACKGROUND: Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) negatively affect morbidity, healthcare costs and postsurgical survival. Preoperative and intraoperative peripheral oxyhemoglobin saturation (SpO2) levels are independent risk factors for postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs). The air-test assesses the value of SpO2 while breathing room-air. We aimed at building a clinical score that includes the air-test for predicting the risk for PPCs. METHODS: This is a development and validation study in patients -randomly divided into two cohorts- from a large randomized clinical trial (iPROVE) that enrolled 964 intermediate-to-high risk patients scheduled for abdominal surgery. Arterial …

Newborn infants and the moral significance of intellectual disabilities.

2001

This article presents moral philosophical arguments regarding life-saving medical treatment that may be more available to infants without disabilities than to infants with intellectual disabilities. The ideas are that children with disabilities are a burden to their families and to society and that a happy life may not be attainable for these children and their families. I argue that human well-being is not based merely on individual characteristics, but is a result of the individual's relation to other people. Further, children with disabilities are not inevitably a burden to their families or society. Accordingly, intellectual disability is not a sufficient reason for withholding life-sa…

Defining right ventricular dysfunction by the use of echocardiography in normotensive patients with pulmonary embolism

2020

Although the prognostic value of various echocardiographic parameters of right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) was reported in normotensive patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE), there is no generally accepted definition of RVD.The aim of the study was to compare echocardiographic parameters for the prediction of an adverse 30‑day outcome and create an optimal definition of RVD.                                     Patients and methods: Echocardiographic parameters including the right ventricular to left ventricular diameter ratio (RV to LV ratio) and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) to predict PE‑related mortality, hemodynamic collapse, or rescue thrombolysis within th…