Evaluating the effectiveness of patient-tailored treatment for patients with non-specific (sub)acute neck pain.

Background: An important issue in the debate about best practice management of non-specific neck pain (NSNP) is the effectiveness of tailored versus generalized interventions.

Methods: Participants with (sub)acute NSNP were randomly allocated to a patient-tailored treatment (PTT), non-patient-tailored treatment (NPTT) or control group (no intervention). The outcome measures were pain (NPRS), disability (NDI), global perceived effect and satisfaction (GPES), productivity costs, and medical consumption.

The Thomas More Lists: A Phonemically Balanced Dutch Monosyllabic Speech Audiometry Test.

Speech audiometry tests are a crucial tool in clinical care and research. In Dutch, the common practice is to use lists of monosyllabic words with a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) structure. However, there are relatively few lists, and they are short.

Nationwide Harmonization Effort for Semi-Quantitative Reporting of SARS-CoV-2 PCR Test Results in Belgium.

From early 2020, a high demand for SARS-CoV-2 tests was driven by several testing indications, including asymptomatic cases, resulting in the massive roll-out of PCR assays to combat the pandemic. Considering the dynamic of viral shedding during the course of infection, the demand to report cycle threshold (Ct) values rapidly emerged. As Ct values can be affected by a number of factors, we considered that harmonization of semi-quantitative PCR results across laboratories would avoid potential divergent interpretations, particularly in the absence of clinical or serological information.

Evaluation of a commercial set of frozen plasmas for instrument-to-instrument comparability.

Introduction: To perform comparability of instruments, the laboratory can select patient samples spanning the reportable range or can use plasma sets from commercial suppliers. We evaluated ExpertCor Routine (ECR) plasma set (Stago), a set of frozen plasmas enabling to verify the agreement between different coagulation analysers. Additionally, we evaluated whether the concept of transference of the reference range is acceptable between instruments, once comparability between the instruments is approved.

Relationship Between Working Memory and Speech-in-Noise Recognition in Young and Older Adult Listeners With Age-Appropriate Hearing.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between working memory (WM) capacity and speech recognition in noise in both a group of young adults and a group of older adults. Method Thirty-three older adults with a mean age of 71.0 (range: 60.