Journal of orthopaedic science : official journal of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association
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To establish a patient-oriented outcome measure for cervical myelopathy, a subcommittee of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) developed a new scoring system to evaluate the overall clinical status of patients, which could be completed by patients themselves. The subcommittee completed three large-scale studies to select and modify questions derived from various preexisting outcome measures including Short Form-36, and then finalized and validated the questionnaire, which comprised 24 questions. ⋯ We have successfully established a questionnaire that is able to demonstrate the status of patients suffering cervical myelopathy from five different aspects represented by five intuitive numerical scores. The final issue to be confirmed is the responsiveness of this questionnaire to changes in patients' status after various surgical and nonsurgical treatments.
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The project to develop a new Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score rating system for low back disorders, the JOA Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ), is currently in progress. Part 1 of the study selected 25 "candidate" items for use on the JOABPEQ. The purpose of this current Part 2 of the study was to verify the reliability of the questionnaire. ⋯ The tentative questionnaire of the JOABPEQ with 25 items was confirmed to be reliable enough to describe the quality of life of patients who suffer low back disorders.
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We have previously offered data suggesting a positive linkage of postoperative up-regulation of systemic angiogenic activity and postoperative progression of pulmonary metastasis in osteosarcoma. The finding that the significant down-regulation of endostatin was critical in angiogenic elevation after primary tumor removal suggests that endostatin is a candidate for antiangiogenic therapy for osteosarcoma. ⋯ Our results indicate that antiangiogenic therapy using endostatin has the potential to prevent postoperative progression of pulmonary metastasis from osteosarcoma. Although this therapeutic strategy cannot provide a cure for osteosarcoma, it should enable osteosarcoma patients to coexist with dormant pulmonary metastasis and lead to improvement of their prognosis.
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There is no widely accepted objective evaluation for lumbar spine disorders. New outcome measures should be patient-oriented and should measure symptoms and self-reported functional status in multiple dimensions. The aim of this study was to identify items to be included in the disease-specific quality of life (QOL) questionnaire for the assessments of patients with lumbar spine disorders. ⋯ This study identified the 25 specific questionnaire items that should be included in the questionnaire to evaluate QOL of patients with various lumbar spine disorders.
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Comparative Study
Interrater reliability of identifying indicators of posterior ligamentous complex disruption when plain films are indeterminate in thoracolumbar injuries.
The Spine Trauma Study Group (STSG) has proposed a novel thoracolumbar injury classification system and score (TLICS) in an attempt to define traumatic spinal injuries and direct appropriate management schemes objectively. The TLICS assigns specific point values based on three variables to generate a final severity score that guides potential treatment options. Within this algorithm, significant emphasis has been placed on posterior ligamentous complex (PLC) integrity. The purpose of this study was to determine the interrater reliability of indicators surgeons use when assessing PLC disruption on imaging studies, including computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). ⋯ The interrater reliability of assessing diastasis of the facet joints on CT had fair to moderate agreement. The reliability of assessing the posterior edema-like signal in the region of PLC components was lower but also fair, whereas the reliability of identifying disrupted PLC components was poor.