The effect of pain neuroscience education on chronic postsurgical pain after total knee arthroplasty: a randomized controlled trial.

Background And Purpose:  Chronic postsurgical pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is frequent and may be reduced by pain neuroscience education (PNE), teaching people about pain from a neurobiological perspective. This study investigated primarily the effectiveness of 2 individual sessions of PNE versus usual care on pain levels 3 months postoperatively in patients undergoing TKA. Secondary outcomes were physical functioning, stiffness, health-related quality of life, pain catastrophizing, attention to pain, and levels of anxiety and depression.

Decision aids can decrease decisional conflict in patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis: Randomized controlled trial.

Background: The interest in shared decision making has increased considerably over the last couple of decades. Decision aids (DAs) can help in shared decision making. Especially when there is more than one reasonable option and outcomes between treatments are comparable.

Wound complications after total hip arthroplasty: a prospective, randomised controlled trial comparing staples with sutures.

Objective: Does the use of staples or sutures for wound closure have a lower surgical site infection rate in patients receiving primary total hip arthroplasty (THA)?

Design: Prospective, randomised controlled multicentre trial.

Methods: 535 patients undergoing THA were included and randomised into 2 groups: 268 wounds were closed with staples, and 267 with sutures. Primary outcome was surgical site infection (SSI).

Perforator-Based Interposition Flaps Perform Better Than Full-Thickness Grafts for the Release of Burn Scar Contractures: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Burn scar contractures remain a significant problem for the severely burned patient. Reconstructive surgery is often indicated to improve function and quality of life. Skin grafts (preferably full-thickness grafts) are frequently used to cover the defect that remains after scar release.

Transepidermal water loss measured with the Tewameter TM300 in burn scars.

Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) is a physiological characteristic to measure the efficiency of the skin barrier. The aim was to investigate the reliability of the Tewameter TM300 for the assessment of TEWL (g/m/h) in burn scars. Also the relation between TEWL scar values and scar quality parameters was investigated.

Detection of influenza A virus homo- and heterosubtype-specific memory B-cells using a novel protein microarray-based analysis tool.

The emergence of the A(H1N1) 2009 pandemic influenza virus was initially seen as a major world-wide health concern since a low degree of immunity to this virus strain was anticipated. However, age-specific infection attack rates and age-specific differences in seroresponse indicate that pre-existing immunity may have played a significant role in protection especially in older age groups. This study describes the use of a protein microarray as a multiplex analysis tool for detection of influenza virus H1 strain-specific memory B-cells before and after infection with A(H1N1)pdm09.

Multicenter cohort association study of SLC2A1 single nucleotide polymorphisms and age-related macular degeneration.

Purpose: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major cause of blindness in older adults and has a genetically complex background. This study examines the potential association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the glucose transporter 1 (SLC2A1) gene and AMD. SLC2A1 regulates the bioavailability of glucose in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which might influence oxidative stress-mediated AMD pathology.

Complement factor H genetic variant and age-related macular degeneration: effect size, modifiers and relationship to disease subtype.

Background: Variation in the complement factor H gene (CFH) is associated with risk of late age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Previous studies have been case-control studies in populations of European ancestry with little differentiation in AMD subtype, and insufficient power to confirm or refute effect modification by smoking.

Methods: To precisely quantify the association of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP rs1061170, 'Y402H') with risk of AMD among studies with differing study designs, participant ancestry and AMD grade and to investigate effect modification by smoking, we report two unpublished genetic association studies (n = 2759) combined with data from 24 published studies (26 studies, 26,494 individuals, including 14,174 cases of AMD) of European ancestry, 10 of which provided individual-level data used to test gene-smoking interaction; and 16 published studies from non-European ancestry.

The ERCC6 gene and age-related macular degeneration.

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible visual loss in the developed countries and is caused by both environmental and genetic factors. A recent study (Tuo et al., PNAS) reported an association between AMD and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs3793784) in the ERCC6 (NM_000124) gene.

The complement component 5 gene and age-related macular degeneration.

Objective: To investigate the association between variants in the complement component 5 (C5) gene and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Design: Separate and combined data from 3 large AMD case-control studies and a prospective population-based study (The Rotterdam Study).

Participants: A total of 2599 AMD cases and 3458 ethnically matched controls.

A delay in CD4 cell response after initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy is associated with the presence of anti-cytomegalovirus but not with anti-herpes simplex virus antibodies.

After the successful initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in HIV-1-infected patients, the mean CD4 cell response was lower in cytomegalovirus (CMV)-seropositive patients than in CMV-seronegative patients (P < 0.05). The difference between the mean CD4 cell counts of CMV-seronegative and CMV-seropositive patients was maximal (163 x 10(6)/l) at 76 weeks after the start of HAART, and decreased gradually thereafter.