Articles: function.
-
Background and Objectives: The Foot Function Index (FFI) is a widely recognized patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) for assessing foot functionality and its impact on quality of life in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This study aimed to observe the behavior of the tool in the Spanish population with RA, optimize the tool, and check its functionality. Materials and Methods: A total of 549 RA patients, with a predominant female participation (75.6%). ⋯ The revised FFI demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.96) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.89). Conclusions: This study highlights the applicability of the FFI in Spanish-speaking RA populations, offering a valid and reliable tool for clinicians and researchers. The modifications enhance the FFI's relevance for RA patients, facilitating better assessment and management of foot-related functional impairments.
-
Post-COVID-19 condition (also known as long COVID) is generally defined as symptoms persisting for 3 months or more after acute COVID-19. Long COVID can affect multiple organ systems and lead to severe and protracted impairment of function as a result of organ damage. ⋯ Although current approaches to long COVID care are largely symptomatic and supportive, recent advances in clinical phenotyping, deep molecular profiling, and biomarker identification might herald a more mechanism-informed and personally tailored approach to clinical care. We also cover the organisation of services for long COVID, approaches to preventing long COVID, and suggestions for future research.
-
After mild traumatic brain injury, service members may experience difficulty with executive functions, which could interfere with return to duty and life roles. Because performance-based multitasking assessments are sensitive to executive dysfunction, a team of military and civilian rehabilitation researchers developed the Charge of Quarters Duty Test (CQDT) to help inform duty readiness after concussion; it is a multitasking test based on a military task scenario that challenges executive functions, such as foresight and planning, set shifting, and prospective memory. Although previous study indicates that CQDT has reliability and known-groups validity, like other multitasking tests, it should not be readministered after rehabilitative care because of learning effects. The purpose of this study was to develop an alternate form of the CQDT and evaluate its equivalence to the CQDT. ⋯ The MODT appears to be an equivalent form of the CQDT that mitigates learning effects that often accompany performance of multitasking assessments. Having developed and validated the equivalence of the CDQT's alternate form, military rehabilitation clinicians have an expanded set of clinical tools by which to identify possible executive dysfunction and evaluate service members' response to rehabilitative care via pre- and post-rehabilitation testing after mild traumatic brain injury.
-
Anesthesia and analgesia · Aug 2024
Detection and Evaluation of Procalcitonin Variants As Diagnostic Tools in Systemic Inflammation.
Procalcitonin is an indicator of systemic inflammation associated with major surgery or sepsis. Procalcitonin exists in a full-length and truncated variant as a result of dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP4)-cleavage. We recently identified differential biological activity of both variants. Here, we present an immunoassay-based method for the separate detection of procalcitonin variants and correlation to clinical data in patients with severe systemic inflammation. ⋯ Polyclonal antibodies generated using procalcitonin N-terminal variant peptides as immunogens are suitable for procalcitonin variant assessment. The separate detection of procalcitonin variants may offer additional diagnostic value and can be correlated with organ dysfunction and clinical outcomes in patients with systemic inflammation.
-
The focus of most epidemiological studies has been mortality or clinical events, with less information on activity limitations related to basic daily functions and their consequences. Standardised data from multiple countries at different economic levels in different regions of the world on activity limitations and their associations with clinical outcomes are sparse. We aimed to quantify the prevalence of activity limitations and use of assistive devices and the association of limitations with adverse outcomes in 25 countries grouped by different economic levels. ⋯ Funding sources are listed at the end of the Article.