Biomedizinische Technik. Biomedical engineering
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Sudden cardiac arrest is a major problem of our society. Ventricular fibrillation strikes without any warning. It leads to unconsciousness and death occurs within minutes. ⋯ Hereby, delays based on false information can be reduced to a minimum. Optimizing the equipment by means of implementing automatic procedures which enable the application by laymen is just as important. But the key to medical success appears to be educating and repeatedly training as many people as possible.
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Comparative Study
The effect of limited interlaminar decompression versus complete laminectomy on intrathecal volume in degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis.
There is a controversial discussion about the adequate surgical procedure for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis. Due to the observation that the degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis takes place predominantly at the interlaminar region on the level of the disc involving facets and bulging of the ligamentum flavum, resection of the whole lamina might not be necessary. A biomechanical study was designed to assess the effect of different decompression techniques using cadaver lumbar spine models. ⋯ The results allow to conclude that limited interlaminar decompression is efficient for decompression in degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis.
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Long periods of quiet sitting is considered a cause of low back pain. It is often assumed that spinal loads are high, especially when sitting erect. Modern office chairs with a tiltable back permit changes in the seated posture. ⋯ In the end-tilt position of the chairback, loads were always lower than when the chairback was upright. Even when the lordotic curvature of the lumbar spine was "corrected", loads on the fixator were lower than when the subject was seated in the upright position. In a modern chair, spinal loading is no higher than with non-adjustable office chairs.
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Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRO 300, Hamamatsu Photonics, Japan) was used to monitor human cerebral function in the central region during manual acupuncture needle stimulation of the large intestine 4 (LI.4) point in 16 adult volunteers (9 females, 7 males; mean age 23.9 +/- 6.0 (SD) years, range 19-45 years). We found a significant (p < 0.001) decrease in oxyhaemoglobin after needle insertion and stimulation (duration 20 sec.), accompanied by an increase (p = 0.003) in deoxyhaemoglobin. ⋯ Cytochrome oxidase aa3 remained unchanged during stimulation. The results demonstrate that near-infrared spectroscopy may be a noninvasive method of measuring regional changes in cerebral haemodynamics resulting from peripheral acupuncture stimulation.
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Impacts of hypnotic drugs on brain function are reflected in the EEG. The EEG monitor Narcotrend performs an automatic classification of the EEG using a scale which was proposed by Kugler for visual evaluation of the EEG. ⋯ The correlation between visual and automatic assessment was high (Spearman rank correlation r = 0.90, prediction probability Pk = 0.90) and a sufficient agreement between visual and automatic assessment was achieved for 92% of the analysed EEG epochs. The results of the study suggest that the automatic classification algorithms implemented in the EEG monitor Narcotrend yield a reliable assessment of the depth of hypnosis.