Popliteal plexus block in total knee arthroplasty: a single-center randomized controlled double-blinded trial.

Introduction: Whether a popliteal plexus block improves postoperative pain following total knee arthroplasty remains debated. This randomized trial tested if adding a popliteal plexus block to a continuous femoral nerve block decreases postoperative opioid requirement.

Methods: We included 66 patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty.

Personalised perioperative dosing of ivabradine in noncardiac surgery: a single-centre, randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind feasibility pilot trial.

Background: Perioperative myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery is associated with postoperative mortality. Heart rate (HR) is an independent risk factor for perioperative myocardial injury. In this pilot trial we tested the feasibility of a randomised, placebo-controlled trial of personalised HR-targeted perioperative ivabradine.

Intranasal Dexmedetomidine for Pain Management in Older Patients: A Cross-Over, Randomized, Double-Blinded, Active-Controlled Trial.

Background: Daily care procedures provoke breakthrough pain and anxiety in palliative situations. Dexmedetomidine may be an alternative to opioids during nursing procedures for older patients.

Objective: We aimed to compare the efficacy of intranasal dexmedetomidine with subcutaneous opioids on the intensity of pain and anxiety during comfort management procedures.

Changes of health-related quality of life 6 months after high-risk oncological upper gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary surgery: a single-centre prospective observational study ().

Introduction: Postoperative health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an essential outcome in oncological surgery, particularly for elderly patients undergoing high-risk surgery. Previous studies have suggested that, on average, HRQoL returns to premorbid normal levels in the months following major surgery. However, the averaging of effect over a studied cohort may hide the variation of individual HRQoL changes.

Distinction between arterial and venous occlusion with tissue oxygen pressure in a porcine fascio-cutaneous flap model.

Background: In recent years, many devices have been developed to monitor free flaps. The Licox probe, which measures tissue oxygen pressure (PtO ), is one of the available devices. Our aim was to demonstrate that PtO could distinguish arterial from venous occlusion in a porcine fascio-cutaneous flap model.

Variants of the mannose-binding lectin gene in the Benin population: heterozygosity for the p.G57E allele may confer a selective advantage. 2007.

Human mannose- binding lectin (MBL) plays an important role in innate immunity. MBL deficiency is associated with mutations in the promoter region and in exon 1 of the MBL2 gene. Such deficiency has been correlated with elevated incidence of infections in infancy and in immunocompromised adults.

Genotype-phenotype correlations in fetuses and neonates with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease.

The prognosis of autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease is known to correlate with genotype. The presence of two truncating mutations in the PKHD1 gene encoding the fibrocystin protein is associated with neonatal death while patients who survive have at least one missense mutation. To determine relationships between genotype and renal and hepatic abnormalities we correlated the severity of renal and hepatic histological lesions to the type of PKHD1 mutations in 54 fetuses (medical pregnancy termination) and 20 neonates who died shortly after birth.

Crohn's disease and early exposure to domestic refrigeration.

Background: Environmental risk factors playing a causative role in Crohn's Disease (CD) remain largely unknown. Recently, it has been suggested that refrigerated food could be involved in disease development. We thus conducted a pilot case control study to explore the association of CD with the exposure to domestic refrigeration in childhood.

Effect of transfusion therapy on cerebral vasculopathy in children with sickle-cell anemia.

This retrospective study assessed the long-term effect of transfusional exchange therapy on MRA/MRI abnormalities in 24 homozygous sickle-cell anemia (HbSS) children presenting with abnormal brain MRA. The median time elapsed from baseline to last available MRA was 29 months. Follow-up MRAs showed improvement, stabilization or worsening of cerebrovascular lesions in 11, 6 and 7 patients respectively.

Inter-observer variability in chest radiograph reading for diagnosing acute lung injury in children.

Acute lung injury (ALI), including its most serious form called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), is a devastating disease that can occur at any age. ALI/ARDS accounts for only 5-8% of admissions to pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) but is fatal in 30-60% of cases. International multicenter prospective studies are needed to better understand pediatric ALI/ARDS.

Can bronchodilator response predict bronchial response to methacholine in preschool coughers?

The aim of the present study was to determine the relationship between bronchodilator response, assessed by interrupter resistance (Rint), and bronchial reactivity in preschool children with chronic cough. Thirty-eight children coughers (median age 5.0 years, range 2.

Variants of the mannose-binding lectin gene in the Benin population: heterozygosity for the p.G57E allele may confer a selective advantage.

Human mannose-binding lectin (MBL) plays an important role in innate immunity. MBL deficiency is associated with mutations in the promoter region and in exon 1 of the MBL2 gene. Such deficiency has been correlated with elevated incidence of infections in infancy and in immunocompromised adults.

High cyclin E staining index in blastemal, stromal or epithelial cells is correlated with tumor aggressiveness in patients with nephroblastoma.

Purpose: Identifying among nephroblastoma those with a high propensity for distant metastases using cell cycle markers: cyclin E as a regulator of progression through the cell cycle and Ki-67 as a tumor proliferation marker, since both are often deregulated in many human malignancies.

Methodology/principal Findings: A staining index (SI) was obtained by immunohistochemistry using anti-cyclin E and anti-Ki-67 antibodies in paraffin sections of 54 postchemotherapy nephroblastoma including 42 nephroblastoma without metastasis and 12 with metastases. Median cyclin E and Ki-67 SI were 46% and 33% in blastemal cells, 30% and 10% in stromal cells, 37% and 29.

Independent effect of visceral adipose tissue on metabolic syndrome in obese adolescents.

Background/aims: Obesity is linked to metabolic complications, even in children, but the role of the distribution of adiposity is unclear. We aimed to assess which compartment of fat mass - total (TFM), visceral (VFM) or subcutaneous (SCFM)--is related to metabolic complications in overweight and obese children and adolescents.

Design: Analyses were conducted in 159 overweight or obese children and adolescents (median body mass index 4.

Long-term outcome of prenatally detected posterior urethral valves: single center study of 65 cases managed by primary valve ablation.

Purpose: Management of posterior urethral valves is significantly modified by the prenatal diagnosis. Our aim was to assess long-term outcome of children with prenatally detected posterior urethral valves treated at our institution by primary valve ablation without routine urinary drainage or diversion.

Materials And Methods: A total of 79 cases of posterior urethral valves were detected prenatally at our hospital between 1987 and 2004.

Postnatal clinical and imaging follow-up of infants with prenatal isolated mild ventriculomegaly: a series of 101 cases.

Background: Postnatal imaging and clinical outcome of fetuses with isolated mild ventriculomegaly (IMV) have never been systematically analysed.

Objective: To evaluate the postnatal clinical outcomes of a large cohort of fetuses with IMV and to correlate them with pre- and postnatal imaging.

Materials And Methods: We report a prospective study of 101 fetuses with IMV (10-15 mm ventriculomegaly with otherwise normal US, MRI, karyotype and TORCH screening).

Interrupter resistance short-term repeatability and bronchodilator response in preschool children.

Unlabelled: Interrupter resistance (Rint) technique can be easily and successfully performed in preschool children. The establishment of Rint short-term repeatability is essential to interpret any Rint change after a pharmacological intervention.

Aims Of The Study: In preschool children with asthma or chronic cough: (1) to assess two indices of short-term repeatability: (a) intra-measurement and (b) within-occasion between-test repeatability; (2) to study the relationship between short-term repeatability and bronchodilator response (BDR).

Prevalence of CARD15/NOD2 mutations in Caucasian healthy people.

Background: Crohn's disease (CD) has been associated with CARD15/NOD2 mutations in Caucasians. The R702W, G908R, and 1007fs mutations represent 82% of the mutated chromosomes. The relative risk of developing CD in homozygous or compound heterozygous people has been estimated as between 10 and 40 times that of the general population.

Tracheostomy does not improve the outcome of patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation: a propensity analysis.

Objective: To examine the association between the performance of a tracheostomy and intensive care unit and postintensive care unit mortality, controlling for treatment selection bias and confounding variables.

Design: Prospective, observational, cohort study.

Setting: Twelve French medical or surgical intensive care units.

Microstructural development of human brain assessed in utero by diffusion tensor imaging.

Background: Diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI) has been shown to be a great tool to assess white matter development in normal infants. Comparison of cerebral diffusion properties between preterm infants and fetuses of corresponding ages should assist in determining the impact of premature ex utero life on brain maturation.

Objective: To assess in utero maturation-dependent microstructural changes of fetal cerebral white matter using diffusion tensor MR imaging.

Time course of catch-up in adiposity influences adult anthropometry in individuals who were born small for gestational age.

Although necessary for a normal final height in individuals who were born small for gestational age (SGA), catch-up growth is associated with drastic changes in body composition that have been suspected to favor the later development of the long-term metabolic complications by promoting central adiposity; however, the specific contribution of catch-up itself on these later complications remains unclear. Therefore, the aim of the study was to characterize the dynamic changes in adiposity during childhood in individuals who were born SGA and to investigate their consequences on adulthood. The magnitude and the time course of postnatal changes in body mass index (BMI) relative to birth and their consequences on adult adiposity were investigated in 127 adults who were born SGA and had available serial anthropometric data in childhood (0-6 y) and adulthood.

The French Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome Registry: general data, phenotype, and genotype.

Objective: To analyze the main clinical features, genetic mutations, and outcomes of patients of the French Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS) Registry.

Design: A country-wide cohort established throughout a long-term multicenter effort.

Patients: Seventy French patients with CCHS (29 male patients and 41 female patients).