Articles: human.
-
Environmental teratogenic factors (e.g. alcohol) are preventable. We focus our analysis on human teratogenic drugs which are not used frequently during pregnancy. The previous human teratogenic studies had serious methodological problems, e.g. the first trimester concept is outdated because environmental teratogens cannot induce congenital abnormalities in the first month of gestation. ⋯ These biases explain that the teratogenic risk of drugs is exaggerated, while the benefit of medicine use during pregnancy is underestimated. Thus, a better balance is needed between the risk and benefit of drug treatments during pregnancy. Of course, we have to do our best to reduce the risk of teratogenic drugs as much as possible, however, it is worth stressing the preventive effect of drugs for maternal diseases (e.g. diabetes mellitus and hyperthermia) related congenital abnormalities.
-
Musculoskeletal care · Jan 2005
How effective is physiotherapy in the treatment of complex regional pain syndrome type I? A review of the literature.
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a debilitating pain disorder for which patients commonly receive physiotherapy. The objective of this literature review is to assess how effective physiotherapy is in the management of adult and childhood CRPS type I. An electronic literature search was performed of the databases AMED, Cinahl, Embase, Ovid Medline, Pubmed, PEDro and PsycINFO, from their inception to November 2004. ⋯ The review suggests that exercise, motor imagery and mirror feedback exercises, relaxation techniques, acupuncture, electroacupuncture, transcutaneous nerve stimulation and combined treatment programmes may help in the treatment of CRPS type I. However, since numerous methodological weaknesses (e.g. small sample sizes, not employing control groups, not evaluating findings against statistical tests) littered the limited literature, it was not possible to determine the effectiveness of individual treatments. Recommendations are made to develop the evidence base.
-
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2005
Capacity of brain cooling via ventilating oxygen at low temperature over respiratory tract.
Cerebral hypothermia is a rather useful way to improve outcome after brain injury. In this paper, the capacity of cooling oxygen ventilation (COV) during cerebral circulation arrest was theoretically evaluated. ⋯ However, its capacity on lowering the deep brain temperature is very limited. Therefore more powerful cooling strategies should be investigated to realize an efficient cooling on the target cerebral tissue.
-
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2005
The Establishment of the Mathematical Model of the 2ndDegree Burn Injury of Human Tissues and Its Application.
A quantitative analysis of the 2nddegree burn injury of human tissues and the relevant mathematical model are presented in this paper. Unlike the general criterion extensively adopted by doctors that pay much attention to the degrees of the skin burn damage such as the area, depth and color of the damaged skins, the paper emphasizes the cause-and-effect of the 2nddegree burn injury of the human tissues. ⋯ The comparisons of the theoretical study with the experimental data have been made and the results are quite satisfactory. The application of the mathematical model in the test of thermal protective performance of fire protection clothing is also presented.
-
Ont Health Technol Assess Ser · Jan 2005
Deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders: an evidence-based analysis.
To determine the effectiveness and adverse effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the treatment of symptoms of idiopathic Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and primary dystonia and to do an economic analysis if evidence for effectiveness is established. ⋯ According to the estimates of prevalence and evidence of effectiveness, there is a shortfall in the numbers of DBS currently done in Ontario for drug-resistant PD, essential tremor, and primary dystonia.Since complication rates are lower if DBS is performed in specialized centres, the number of sites should be limited.The cost per procedure to institutions with the expertise to undertake DBS and the human resource considerations are likely to be limiting factors in the further diffusion of DBS.