Publications by authors named "D'Cruz R"

Background: Treatment for oral or oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (O&OSCC) often leads to problems with speech articulation. Articulatory-kinematic data may be especially informative in designing new therapeutic approaches for individuals treated for these tumours.

Aims: To provide a systematic review of the literature assessing the articulatory-kinematic consequences of oral and oropharyngeal cancer treatment.

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Article Synopsis
  • Sniff nasal inspiratory pressure (SNIP) is a method to evaluate respiratory muscle strength, particularly in neuromuscular diseases like ALS, and the effects of nostril occlusion and mouth sealing on SNIP measurements were examined.
  • A study involving 81 participants found that occluding the contralateral nostril significantly increased SNIP measurements across all groups, while opening the mouth led to a notable decrease in SNIP values.
  • The results highlight the importance of proper technique in measuring SNIP, as using nostril occlusion could lead to fewer individuals qualifying for non-invasive ventilation, affecting clinical decisions and longitudinal studies.
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Hypercapnic respiratory failure arises due to an imbalance in the load-capacity-drive relationship of the respiratory muscle pump, typically arising in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity-related respiratory failure, and neuromuscular disease. Patients at risk of developing chronic respiratory failure and those with established disease should be referred to a specialist ventilation unit for evaluation and consideration of home noninvasive ventilation (NIV) initiation. Clinical trials demonstrate that, following careful patient selection, home NIV can improve a range of clinical, patient-reported, and physiological outcomes.

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This state-of-the-art review provides an overview of the history of home mechanical ventilation (HMV), including early descriptions of mechanical ventilation from ancient and Renaissance perspectives and the mass development of ventilators designed for long-term use during the poliomyelitis epidemic. Seminal data from key clinical trials supports the application of HMV in certain patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, neuromuscular disease and obesity-related respiratory failure. Innovative engineering coupled with refined physiological understanding now permits widespread delivery of home mechanical ventilation to a global population, using portable devices with advanced ventilatory modes and telemonitoring capabilities.

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Hypercapnia is commonly encountered by general and specialist respiratory clinicians. Patients at risk of developing hypercapnic respiratory failure include those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), obesity and neuromuscular disease. Such patients may present to clinicians acutely unwell on the acute medical take or during an inpatient deterioration, or be identified in the stable outpatient setting.

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Surface electromyography (sEMG) can be used to measure the electrical activity of the respiratory muscles. The possible applications of sEMG span from patients suffering from acute respiratory failure to patients receiving chronic home mechanical ventilation, to evaluate muscle function, titrate ventilatory support and guide treatment. However, sEMG is mainly used as a monitoring tool for research and its use in clinical practice is still limited-in part due to a lack of standardization and transparent reporting.

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Purpose: To compare visual field progression in severity-matched pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (XFG) and primary glaucoma after intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction by filtering surgery.

Methods: Patients with XFG (n=32), primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG, n=33) or primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG, n=28) that underwent routine cataract and glaucoma filtering surgery by the same surgeon (APR) between May 2017 and September 2021, were included for this prospective study. Rate of progression (ROP) was determined using guided progression analysis and compared between XFG and primary glaucoma.

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Article Synopsis
  • Respiratory muscle weakness can lead to ineffective coughing, increasing the risk of lower respiratory infections in patients with neuromuscular diseases; Mechanical insufflation-exsufflation (MIE) enhances cough function, but optimal techniques remain unclear.
  • The study investigates the effects of high-pressure MIE (HP-MIE) versus low-pressure MIE (LP-MIE) on lung recruitment, respiratory drive, and patient comfort in patients with respiratory muscle weakness.
  • Results show HP-MIE significantly improves cough peak flow without affecting lung recruitment or breathing comfort but may lead to upper airway closure and discomfort in patients with severe weakness.
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Congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) are characterised by a spectrum of structural and histologic abnormalities and are the major cause of childhood kidney failure. During kidney morphogenesis, the formation of a critical number of nephrons is an embryonic process supported, in part, by signalling between nephrogenic precursors and Foxd1-positive stromal progenitor cells. Low nephron number and abnormal patterning of the stroma are signature pathological features among CAKUT phenotypes with decreased kidney function.

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CAKUT is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease in children and comprises a broad spectrum of phenotypic abnormalities in kidney and ureter development. Molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of CAKUT have been elucidated in genetic models, predominantly in the mouse, a paradigm for human renal development. Hedgehog (Hh) signaling is critical to normal embryogenesis, including kidney development.

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Purpose Of Review: Critical care nutrition guidelines primarily focus on patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation, yet noninvasive ventilation (NIV) is an increasingly common intervention. The optimal route of nutrition delivery in patients receiving NIV has not been established. This review aims to describe the implications of NIV on the route of feeding prescribed.

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Home mechanical ventilation (HMV) is a treatment for chronic respiratory failure that has shown clinical and cost effectiveness in patients with underlying COPD, obesity-related respiratory failure and neuromuscular disease (NMD). By treating chronic respiratory failure with adequate adherence to HMV, improvement in patient-reported outcomes including health-related quality of life (HRQoL) have been evaluated using general and disease-specific quantitative, semi-qualitative and qualitative methods. However, the treatment response in terms of trajectory of change in HRQoL is not uniform across the restrictive and obstructive disease groups.

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Purpose: To evaluate the knowledge and skills of clinicians in differentiating cases of Pythium from fungal keratitis based on their clinical appearance.

Methods: Thirty slit-lamp photographs from culture-proven cases of Pythium and fungal keratitis were selected for conducting a prospective online-based photographic survey. The participants were asked to identify the causative organism and enlist the specific clinical features which helped in reaching the diagnosis.

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Unlabelled: Sleep disturbances are common in pregnancy and affect sleep quality. The maternal body is going through constant physical and physiological changes to adapt to the growing fetus. Sleep disorders may manifest at any point during pregnancy; some may result in adverse maternal or fetal outcomes.

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Early Career Members of Assembly 2 (Respiratory Intensive Care) attended the European Respiratory Society International Congress through a virtual platform in 2021. Sessions of interest to our assembly members included symposia on the implications of acute respiratory distress syndrome phenotyping on diagnosis and treatment, safe applications of noninvasive ventilation in hypoxaemic respiratory failure, and new developments in mechanical ventilation and weaning, and a guidelines session on applying high-flow therapy in acute respiratory failure. These sessions are summarised in this article.

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Background: Silicone-covered endoluminal stents have been applied to various hollow visceral disorders in adult patients with varying success. Efficacy of retrievable endoluminal stenting in children is less well-established.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate our experience with evolving applications of endoluminal silicone-covered stenting in children.

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Unlabelled: Ultrasound (US) for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis is often nondiagnostic, and additional imaging is required. A standardized approach may reduce unnecessary imaging.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed all patients who had imaging for appendicitis in our emergency department in 2017 and evaluated patient characteristics associated with nondiagnostic US.

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Iridocorneal endothelial (ICE) syndrome is well known to cause refractory glaucoma in young adults. Commonly acclaimed mechanism for trabeculectomy failure in these cases include accelerated subconjunctival fibrosis, abnormal endothelial proliferation, and closure of ostium. In the following article, we present a case of Iridocorneal endothelial syndrome that presented with refractory glaucoma after trabeculectomy due to rapidly progressive peripheral anterior synechiae causing angle closure and corneal decompensation that mandated a tailored surgical approach of management.

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