Plos One
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The pronator drift test is widely used to detect mild arm weakness. We developed an application that runs on a handheld device to objectify the pronator drift test and investigated its feasibility in stroke patients. ⋯ The iPronator can reliably detect mild arm weakness of stroke patients and was also useful in detecting functional recovery for one week in patients with acute stroke.
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Previous studies have defined low-frequency, spatially consistent intrinsic connectivity networks (ICN) in resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data which reflect functional interactions among distinct brain areas. We sought to explore whether and how repeated migraine attacks influence intrinsic brain connectivity, as well as how activity in these networks correlates with clinical indicators of migraine. ⋯ Our findings may provide new insights into the characterization of migraine as a condition affecting brain activity in intrinsic connectivity networks. Moreover, the abnormalities may be the consequence of a persistent central neural system dysfunction, reflecting cumulative brain insults due to frequent ongoing migraine attacks.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Risk factors for vascular occlusive events and death due to bleeding in trauma patients; an analysis of the CRASH-2 cohort.
Vascular occlusive events can complicate recovery following trauma. We examined risk factors for venous and arterial vascular occlusive events in trauma patients and the extent to which the risk of vascular occlusive events varies with the severity of bleeding. ⋯ Patients with severe traumatic bleeding are at greatly increased risk of venous and arterial vascular occlusive events. Older age and blunt trauma are also risk factors for vascular occlusive events. Effective treatment of bleeding may reduce venous and arterial vascular occlusive complications in trauma patients.
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Capecitabine is effective and indicated for the salvage treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the efficacy of capecitabine in the adjuvant setting. There have been two large randomized studies to determine whether patients with high-risk early breast cancer benefit from the addition of capecitabine to standard chemotherapy, but they have yielded inconsistent results. We first undertook a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of the addition of capecitabine over standard treatment. ⋯ Due to the synergistic effect of taxane and capecitabine, taxane-anthracycline-capecitabine regimen may effectively improve the efficacy in the adjuvant setting and may be a novel generation of adjuvant chemotherapy regimen. The results of the current meta-analysis support this hypothesis and indicate that taxane-based regimen with capecitabine may be an effective, convenient, and well tolerated regimen in patients with early breast cancer.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
A randomized, single-center double-blinded trial on the effects of diltiazem sustained-release capsules in patients with coronary slow flow phenomenon at 6-month follow-up.
The aim of this study is to observe the chronic effects of diltiazem release capsules on patients with coronary slow flow (CSF) phenomenon. ⋯ Diltiazem slow-release capsules improved coronary blood flow and alleviated angina in patients with CSF.