The Kobe journal of medical sciences
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Place of death is an important issue at the end-of-life. It is poorly understood in pediatric cancer patients in Japan. This study aimed to clarify place of death of children with cancer as well as variables associated with place of death. ⋯ This is the first English publication of place of death of pediatric cancer patients in Japan. The low percentage of home death, factors influencing place of death and the lack of disparity between actual and preferred place of death were indicated. Further studies are required to better understand place of death.
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To examine indicators that may assist in the diagnosis of cardiac etiology using simple tests in witnessed cardiac etiology out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases, which is emphasized in the Utstein Style. ⋯ The indicators which should be noted in simple tests to improve the precision of discrimination of cardiac etiology in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are ventricular fibrillation in the initial ECG and the qualitative test of cardiac troponin T.
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Comparative Study Controlled Clinical Trial
Results of 'two above- one below approach' with intermediate screws at the fracture site in the surgical treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures.
The aim of this retrospective clinical study was to evaluate and compare the results of the technique so called 'two above one below approach' with intermediate screws at the fracture site with long-segment posterior fusion in the surgical treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures. For this purpose neurologically intact 27 patients having isolated one level thoracolumbar burst fracture underwent posterior instrumentation and fusion in our clinic via 'two above-one below approach' with intermediate screws at the fracture site. A control group consisting of 15 patients having one level thoracolumbar burst fracture treated with long segment posterior spinal fusion in our institute was formed. ⋯ The loss of correction in local kyphosis of short-segment group in the interval between postoperative and follow-up period was also significant. No implant failure was noted. As a conclusion 'two above one below approach' with intermediate screws at the fracture site is associated with loss of correction radiographically, but favorable clinical outcomes in the presence of any implant failure can be achieved in the treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures.
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Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is caused by loss of SMN1. A nearly identical gene, SMN2, fails to compensate for the loss of SMN1 because SMN2 produces mainly an exon 7-skipped product. The +6C in SMN1 exon 7 proceeds to include exon 7 into mRNA, while the +6U in SMN2 causes skipping of exon 7. ⋯ In gel-shift assay, hnRNP C1/C2 had a greater affinity for the RNA probe with +6C than for the RNA probe with +6U. In vitro splicing assay showed that anti-hnRNP C1/C2 antibody hampered splicing of SMN1 exon 7, but did not affect splicing of SMN2 exon 7. In conclusion, we showed the possibility that hnRNP C1/C2 enhanced SMN1 exon 7 splicing specifically.
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Case Reports
Two cases of masticator space abscess initially diagnosed as temporomandibular joint disorder.
Diseases causing trismus or pain of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) include temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJD), trauma, tumors and an inflammation. This report describes two cases of masticator space abscesses causing trismus and TMJ pain, which were initially diagnosed as TMJD. The first case was a 62-year-old female suffering from trismus and right-TMJ pain without swelling or redness, which was diagnosed as TMJD with MRI (TMJ region) findings of bilateral anterior disc displacement without reduction. ⋯ Therefore an intraoral incision was performed under general anesthesia and antibiotics were administered. She recovered well and was discharged from hospital on the 12th day. When we treat TMJD, we must keep in mind the possibility of the inapparent presence of some unseen inflammation, especially an abscess formation in the masticator space.