The journal of spinal cord medicine
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Context: Both copper and betanin have been implicated as having significant bioactivity against ischemic damage in a variety of experimental and clinical settings. The aim of this study is to investigate whether betanin and copper have any protective effect on spinal cord in an ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) model in rats. Design: Spraque-Dawley rats were used in four groups: Sham group (n = 7), control group (laparotomy and cross-clamping of aorta, n = 7), betanin treatment group (dosage of 100 mg/kg of betanin administered intraperitoneally (i.p.) 60 min before laparotomy, n = 7), copper sulfate treatment group (administered copper sulfate i.p. at a dose of 0.1 mg/kg/day for 7 days before laparotomy, n = 7). ⋯ Conclusion: I/R injury of the spinal cord can be successfully demonstrated by aortic clamping in this surgical model. Betanin/Copper sulphate has ameliorative effects against operative I/R injury. Low toxicity of those agents makes them ideal targets for clinical research for this purpose.
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Objective: To assess the impact of spasticity severity as well as socio-demographic and clinical factors on quality of life (QOL) and to identify factors predicting poor QOL among patients with spinal cord injury (SCI)Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting: Tertiary care clinic in Istanbul, Turkey. Participants: A total of 110 patients with SCI (mean (SD) age: 43.8 (14.7) years, 58.2% were males) were enrolled. ⋯ Results: The mean (SD) physical health (41.9 (15.3) vs. 46.5 (10.9), P = 0.029), social relationships (45.6 (20.2) vs. 53.8 (17.3), P = 0.025) and total WHOQOL-BREF scores were significantly lower in patients with more severe spasticity. Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that severity of spasticity was a significant predictor of decreased WHOQOL-BREF total scores, physical domain scores and social relations domain scores by 11.381 (P = 0.007), 11.518 (P = 0.005) and 17. 965 (P = 0.004), respectively. Conclusion: In conclusion, addressing QOL in relation to severity of spasticity for the first time among Turkish SCI patients, our findings revealed a negative impact of the spasticity severity on the WHOQOL-BREF scores, particularly for physical health and social relationship domains.