Plos One
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Determine whether white matter signal fluctuation on T2* weighted BOLD contrast images are associated with aging and cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). ⋯ NAWM was found to have graded increases in cardiac pulsations due to age and SVD, independently. Within SVD participants, WMH lesions had reduced physiological noise compared to NAWM. Cardiac pulsatility in resting BOLD data may provide a complementary dynamic measure of WM integrity to add to static FLAIR anatomical images.
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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines recommend acupuncture as a clinically effective treatment for chronic back pain. However, there is insufficient knowledge of what factors contribute to patients' positive and negative experiences of acupuncture, and how those factors interact in terms of the acceptability of treatment. This study used patient interviews following acupuncture treatment for back pain to identify, understand and describe the elements that contribute or detract from acceptability of treatment. ⋯ The acceptability of acupuncture treatment for low back pain is complex and multifaceted. The therapeutic relationship between the practitioner and patient emerged as a strong driver for acceptability, and as a useful vehicle to develop the patients' self-efficacy in pain management in the longer term. Unpleasant treatment related effects do not necessarily detract from patients' overall perception of acceptability.
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Most perceived parameters of sound (e.g. pitch, duration, timbre) can also be imagined in the absence of sound. These parameters are imagined more veridically by expert musicians than non-experts. Evidence for whether loudness is imagined, however, is conflicting. ⋯ Similarity between each participant's imagined and listening loudness profiles and reference recording intensity profiles was assessed using time series analysis and dynamic time warping. The results suggest a widespread ability to imagine the loudness of familiar music. The veridicality of imagined loudness tended to be greatest for the expert musicians, supporting the predicted relationship between musical expertise and musical imagery ability.
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The aim of the present study was to generate up-to-date normative data for health-related quality of life (QoL) measured with the "European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Core Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30)" in a random sample of the population in Northern Germany. ⋯ Our study participants are representative for the German general population with regard to age, sex and education. Of special interest is the high proportion of participants reporting depression which is also mirrored by high fatigue, pain and insomnia scores. The normative data provided should be used as comparison health-related QoL data when evaluating the QoL in German cancer patients.
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The terminology used to describe neuropathic pain appears to be conserved across languages, which facilitates the translation of validated neuropathic pain screening tools into other languages. However, this assumption has not been assessed in an African language. Therefore we investigated the terminology used by 54 patients whose native language was isiZulu, a major Bantu language of Africa, when describing their symptomatic HIV-associated sensory neuropathy. ⋯ For example, knowledge of English terms ranged from >98% ("hot", "cold/freezing", "cramping") to <25% ("pricking", "radiating", "throbbing"), and true understanding of English terms ranged from >90% ("hot", "burning", "cramping") to <35% ("tingling", "jumping", "shooting", "radiating"). In conclusion, we show significant similarity in the terms used to describe neuropathic pain in isiZulu compared to non-African languages, thus indicating that translation of existing neuropathic pain screening tools into this, and possibly other Bantu languages, is a viable option. However, the usefulness of English-language screening tools in this non-native English speaking population may be limited.