Medicine
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This study aimed to investigate the short-term effectiveness of scapular focused taping (SFT) on scapular position and kinematics during the tennis serve among professional players with and without shoulder pain. The cohort included 7 players who had no history of non-shoulder pain (NSP) and 6 players with shoulder pain (SP). All participants performed tennis flat serves while the Qualisys motion capture system recorded three-dimensional scapular kinematic data according to the International Society of Biomechanics recommendations. ⋯ SFT had a positive immediate effect on the scapular posterior tilting and external rotation during certain phases of the tennis serve among tennis athletes with and without shoulder pain. These findings may help clinicians and sports practitioners to prevent and rehabilitate shoulder injuries for overhead athletes. Level of evidence: Level III; Case-Control Design; Comparative Study.
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CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) was closely related to the degree of pathological differentiation of tumors, and it's an important determinant of glioma pathogenicity. However, the molecular and pathological features of CIMP-positive glioma have not been fully elucidated. In addition, CIMP have been reported to be a useful prognostic marker in several human cancers, yet its prognostic value in gliomas is still controversial. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate gene mutations and pathological features of CIMP-positive glioma and explore the prognostic value of CIMP in gliomas. ⋯ CIMP could be used as a potential independent prognostic indicator for glioma.
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Physical factors such as frequency of low back pain, sensory abnormalities in the lower extremities, smoking history before surgery, and preoperative mental health status as predictors of operative outcomes have been growing as areas of interest in the field of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (DLSS). This study aimed to investigate the correlation between the preoperative Short Form-36 Mental Component Score (SF-36 MCS) and long-term prognosis after decompression surgery for DLSS. In total, 198 patients were enrolled in this study. ⋯ Regarding the correlation between preoperative MCS and SF-36 PCS improvement, the r values were 0.321 (P < .05) at 6 months postoperatively and 0.343 (P < .05) at 12 months postoperatively. Therefore, SF-36 PCS improvement at 6 and 12 months after decompression surgery showed a strong positive correlation with preoperative SF-36 MCS scores. Preoperative SF-36 MCS is a factor that can predict the prognosis of patients who underwent decompression surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis for at least 1 year postoperatively.
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This study seeks to understand the value of ventilation imaging in pregnant patients imaged for suspected pulmonary embolism (PE). Ventilation-perfusion (VQ) scans in this high-risk population were compared to ventilation-only scans. We hypothesize that in this relatively healthy population, the exclusion of ventilation scans will not impact the rate of scans interpreted as positive. ⋯ No association was seen between scan type and positive/indeterminate classification, nor between scan type and negative/indeterminate classification. The exclusion of ventilation images in VQ-scans was associated with a higher rate of positive studies, but this difference was small (<1%). Given the overwhelmingly normal percentage of Q-exams (>90% in our study), and the benefits of omitting ventilation imaging, perfusion-only imaging should be considered a reasonable option for imaging the pregnant patient to exclude PE.
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Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive tumor with a poor prognosis. In our study, we aimed to investigate the specific clinical, laboratory, and radiological features of the tumor and the prognostic effect of SUVmax (maximum standardized uptake values) according to PET/CT (positron emission tomography). Demographic, therapeutic, clinical, and survival information of patients diagnosed with histologically-validated pleural mesothelioma in our hospital between January 2010 to December 2019 will be retrospectively scanned from the hospital records. ⋯ The rates of chemotherapy and surgical treatment, right lung location, and epithelioid pathology were significantly lower in the deceased patients' group compared to the living patients' group (P = .016, P = .030, P = .018, P = .008). The mean follow-up time was 13 months. Key determinants of survival in MPM include age, male gender, neutrophil increase, pleural thickening, high PET SUV max values, stage, histological type, asbestos exposure, and treatment regimen.