Plos One
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It has been suggested that incongruence between signals for motor intention and sensory input can cause pain and other sensory abnormalities. This claim is supported by reports that moving in an environment of induced sensorimotor conflict leads to elevated pain and sensory symptoms in those with certain painful conditions. Similar procedures can lead to reports of anomalous sensations in healthy volunteers too. ⋯ We suggest that small discrepancies between sensory and motor information, as they occur during mirror visual feedback with symmetrical movements, can impair tactile processing. In contrast, asymmetrical movements with mirror visual feedback may not impact tactile processing because the larger discrepancies between sensory and motor information may prevent the integration of these sources of information. These results contrast with previous reports of anomalous sensations during exposure to both low and high sensorimotor conflict, but are nevertheless in agreement with a forward model interpretation of perceptual modulations during goal directed movement.
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Unintentional injury is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, and mortality due to injury has risen over the past decade. The social determinants behind these rising trends have not been well documented. This study examines the relationship between county-level poverty and unintentional injury mortality in the United States from 1999-2012. ⋯ The population attributable fraction for all unintentional injuries rose from 0.22 (95% CI 0.13,0.30) in 1999 to 0.35 (95% CI 0.22,0.45) in 2012. This is the first study that uses comprehensive mortality data to document the associations between county poverty and injury mortality rates for the entire US population over a 14 year period. This study suggests that injury reduction interventions should focus on areas of high or increasing poverty.
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This study was designed (a) to evaluate an improved quantitative lung fibrosis score based on a computer-aided diagnosis (CaM) system in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc),-related interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD), (b) to investigate the relationship between physiologic parameters (forced vital capacity [FVC] and single-breath diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide [DLCO]), patient-centred measures of dyspnea and functional disability and CaM and visual reader-based (CoVR) methods, and (c) to identify potential surrogate measures from quantitative and visual HRCT measurement. ⋯ Although a close correlation between CaM score results and CoVR total score was found, CaM analysis showed a more significant correlation with DLco (more so than the FVC), patient-centred measures of perceived dyspnea and functional disability. Computer-aided tomographic analysis is computationally efficient, and in combination with physiologic and patient-centred measures, it could allow a means for accurately assessing and monitoring the disease progression or response to therapy.
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The purpose of our study was to determine the value of different hybrid imaging combinations for the detection of focal and diffuse bone marrow infiltration in lymphoma. Patients with histologically proven lymphoma, who underwent both [18F]-FDG-PET/CT and whole-body MRI (including T1- and diffusion-weighted [DWI] sequences) within seven days, and a subsequent bone marrow biopsy, were retrospectively included. Three hybrid imaging combinations were evaluated: (1) [18F]-FDG-PET/CT; (2) [18F]-FDG-PET/T1; and (3) [18F]-FDG-PET/DWI. ⋯ The sensitivity of all three imaging combinations for detecting diffuse bone marrow involvement was only moderate (62.5% for all three combinations). Although the combination of [18F]-FDG-PET and T1-weighted MRI generally showed the best diagnostic performance for the detection of bone marrow involvement in lymphoma, it was not significantly superior to the two other hybrid imaging combinations. Since the sensitivity of all imaging combinations for the detection of diffuse bone marrow involvement was only moderate, bone marrow biopsy cannot be replaced by imaging as yet.
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Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide in children aged <5 years and older adults with acute lower respiratory infections (ALRIs). However, few studies regarding the epidemiology of hospitalizations for RSV infection have been performed previously in China. Here, we aimed to describe the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed RSV infection in eastern China. ⋯ Additionally, only a small number of patients were treated with broad-spectrum antiviral drugs, and most of patients were treated with antimicrobial drugs that were not appropriate for RSV infection. RSV is a leading viral pathogen and a common cause of viral infection in young children aged <5 years with ALRIs in eastern China. Effective vaccines and antiviral agents targeting RSV are needed to mitigate its large public health impact.