Severe to profound hearing impairment: quality of life, psychosocial consequences and audiological rehabilitation.

Purpose: To study the quality of life (QoL) and psychosocial consequences in terms of sick leave and audiological rehabilitation given to patients with severe to profound hearing impairment.

Method: A retrospective study of data on 2319 patients with severe to profound hearing impairment in The Swedish Quality Register of Otorhinolaryngology, followed by a posted questionnaire including The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Results: The results indicate greater levels of anxiety and depression among patients with severe or profound hearing impairment than in the general population, and annoying tinnitus and vertigo had strong negative effects on QoL.

Detrimental and protective fat: body fat distribution and its relation to metabolic disease.

Obesity is linked to numerous comorbidities that include, but are not limited to, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular disease. Current evidence suggests, however, obesity itself is not an exclusive predictor of metabolic dysregulation but rather adipose tissue distribution. Obesity-related adverse health consequences occur predominately in individuals with upper body fat accumulation, the detrimental distribution, commonly associated with visceral obesity.

Research priorities in geriatric oncology for 2013 and beyond.

The incidence of cancer increases with advanced age. Unfortunately, there is a significant lack of evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of treatments. The oncology community also lacks information regarding which older patients are most likely to benefit from treatment without undue toxicities.

Predictors of hospitalization for heart failure and of all-cause mortality after atrioventricular nodal ablation and right ventricular pacing for atrial fibrillation.

Aims: Atrioventricular junction ablation (AVJA) is a highly effective treatment in patients with therapy refractory atrial fibrillation (AF) but renders the patient pacemaker dependent. We aimed to analyse the long-term incidence of hospitalization for heart failure (HF) and all-cause mortality in patients who underwent AVJA because of AF and to determine predictors for HF and mortality.

Methods And Results: We retrospectively enrolled 162 consecutive patients, mean age 67 ± 9 years, 48% women, who underwent AVJA because of symptomatic AF refractory to pharmacological treatment (n = 117) or unsuccessful repeated pulmonary vein isolation (n = 45).

Increase in physical activity is associated with lower HbA1c levels in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes: results from a cross-sectional study based on the Swedish pediatric diabetes quality registry (SWEDIABKIDS).

Aims: To evaluate the associations between physical activity (PA) and metabolic control, measured by glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), in a large group of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of data from 4655 patients, comparing HbA1c values with levels of physical activity. The data for the children and adolescents were obtained from the Swedish pediatric diabetes quality registry, SWEDIABKIDS.

Gestational diabetes mellitus and later cardiovascular disease: a Swedish population based case-control study.

Objective: To identify if gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a clinically useful marker of future cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and if GDM combined with other risks (smoking, hypertension or body mass) identifies high-risk groups.

Design: Population-based matched case-control study.

Setting: National Swedish register data from 1991 to 2008.

Intraperitoneal local anesthetics have predominant local analgesic effect: a randomized, double-blind study.

Background: It remains unclear whether analgesia from intraperitoneal local anesthetics is via local or central mechanisms. This double-blind clinical trial tests the hypothesis that intraperitoneal local anesthetic is superior to continuous IV infusion for pain management. Primary outcome was morphine consumption during 0 to 24 h.

A review of interventions that promote eating by internal cues.

Traditional diet programs that encourage individuals to consciously restrict their dietary intake have not only been ineffective in terms of weight outcomes, but have also been counterproductive, promoting psychological distress and unhealthy eating behaviors. Nondiet approaches shift the focus away from weight outcomes to the improvement of health outcomes and psychological well-being. One such approach, intuitive eating, promotes dietary intake based on internal cues of hunger and fullness, body acceptance, and making behavior choices based on health as well as enjoyment.

Aspiration induced by remifentanil: a double-blind, randomized, crossover study in healthy volunteers.

Background: Remifentanil is widely used for monitored anesthesia care in spontaneously breathing patients. However, the authors' previous studies have shown that remifentanil induces subjective swallowing difficulties, which may increase the risk of aspiration.

Methods: Twenty-five healthy volunteers participated in a double-blind, randomized, crossover trial at the University Hospital in Örebro, Örebro, Sweden.

Arm lymphoedema after axillary surgery in women with invasive breast cancer.

Background: The primary aim was to compare arm lymphoedema after sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) alone versus axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in women with node-negative and node-positive breast cancer. The secondary aim was to examine the potential association between self-reported and objectively measured arm lymphoedema.

Methods: Women who had surgery during 1999-2004 for invasive breast cancer in four centres in Sweden were included.

Sector resection with or without postoperative radiotherapy for stage I breast cancer: 20-year results of a randomized trial.

Purpose: To investigate how radiotherapy (XRT) adds to tumor control using a standardized surgical technique with meticulous control of surgical margins in a randomized trial with 20 years of follow-up.

Patients And Methods: Three hundred eighty-one women with pT1N0 breast cancer were randomly assigned to sector resection with (XRT group) or without (non-XRT group) postoperative radiotherapy to the breast. With follow-up through 2010, we estimated cumulative proportion of recurrence, breast cancer death, and all-cause mortality.

Postoperative pain after abdominal hysterectomy: a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial comparing continuous infusion vs patient-controlled intraperitoneal injection of local anaesthetic.

Background: Local anaesthetics (LA) injected intraperitoneally have been found to decrease postoperative pain. This double-blind randomized study was performed comparing continuous infusion or patient-controlled intraperitoneal (i.p.

Polymorphism in the retinoic acid metabolizing enzyme CYP26B1 and the development of Crohn's Disease.

Several studies suggest that Vitamin A may be involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the mechanism is still unknown. Cytochrome P450 26 B1 (CYP26B1) is involved in the degradation of retinoic acid and the polymorphism rs2241057 has an elevated catabolic function of retinoic acid, why we hypothesized that the rs2241057 polymorphism may affect the risk of Crohn's disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). DNA from 1378 IBD patients, divided into 871 patients with CD and 507 with UC, and 1205 healthy controls collected at Örebro University Hospital and Karolinska University Hospital were analyzed for the CYP26B1 rs2241057 polymorphism with TaqMan® SNP Genotyping Assay followed by allelic discrimination analysis.

Postoperative pain relief after total hip arthroplasty: a randomized, double-blind comparison between intrathecal morphine and local infiltration analgesia.

Background: Postoperative pain after total hip arthroplasty (THA) can delay mobilization. This was assessed after intrathecal morphine (ITM) compared with local infiltration analgesia (LIA) using a non-inferiority design.

Methods: Eighty patients were recruited in this randomized, double-blind study.

Mortality following unemployment during an economic downturn: Swedish register-based cohort study.

Objective: To investigate if unemployment during an economic downturn is associated with mortality, even among men with markers of better health (higher cognitive function scores and qualifications), and to assess whether the associations vary by age at unemployment.

Design: Longitudinal register-based cohort study.

Setting: Study entry was in 1990 and 2001 when Sweden was entering periods of significant economic contraction.

Infliximab as rescue therapy in hospitalised patients with steroid-refractory acute ulcerative colitis: a long-term follow-up of 211 Swedish patients.

Background: Rescue therapy with infliximab (IFX) has been proven effective in a steroid-refractory attack of ulcerative colitis (UC). The long-term efficacy is not well described.

Aim: To present a retrospective study of IFX as rescue therapy in UC.

Effect of interceptive extraction of deciduous canine on palatally displaced maxillary canine: a prospective randomized controlled study.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of the extraction of deciduous canines on palatally displaced canines (PDCs), to analyze the impact of the age of the patient on this interceptive treatment, and to assess the outcome of one-sided extraction of a maxillary primary canine on the midline of the maxilla.

Materials And Methods: This study included 48 PDCs in 24 consecutive patients with bilateral PDCs. The mean age of the patients at diagnosis was 11.

Effects of remifentanil on the esophagogastric junction and swallowing.

Background: A recent study demonstrated that reflux is associated with impaired pressure augmentation in the esophagogastric junction (EGJ), caused by diaphragmal contractions during inspiration. It is unknown whether this augmentation is influenced by opioids. Swallowing difficulties can be a poorly recognised side effect of remifentanil.

Interventions for lifestyle changes to promote weight reduction, a randomized controlled trial in primary health care.

Background: Overweight and obesity are growing public health problems in high income countries and is now growing at a dramatic pace in low and middle income countries, particularly in urban settings. The aim of this trial was to examine the effects of a weight reduction program in adults and to determine whether or not a more extensive intervention was superior to ordinary care.

Methods: Patients seeking advice for overweight/obesity or illness related to overweight/obesity at eight primary health care centers in Sweden were randomized either to intervention or control care groups with both groups given dietary advice and individualized information on increased regular physical activity.

Chronic nicotine effects on left ventricular function in healthy middle-aged people: an echocardiographic study.

Aims: Cigarettes and Swedish snuff influence the cardiovascular system in many ways. Cigarette and snuff usage have been linked with an acute impairment in several diastolic cardiac parameters during intake. The aim of this study is to investigate whether long-term usage of Swedish snuff or cigarettes also causes a more permanent impairment of systolic and/or diastolic cardiac parameters in the left ventricle in otherwise healthy middle-aged snuffers and smokers.

Isolation and characterization of the small subunit of the uptake hydrogenase from the cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme.

In nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, hydrogen evolution is associated with hydrogenases and nitrogenase, making these enzymes interesting targets for genetic engineering aimed at increased hydrogen production. Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133 is a filamentous cyanobacterium that expresses the uptake hydrogenase HupSL in heterocysts under nitrogen-fixing conditions. Little is known about the structural and biophysical properties of HupSL.

Intra-peritoneal microdialysis and intra-abdominal pressure after endovascular repair of ruptured aortic aneurysms.

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate intra-peritoneal (ip) microdialysis after endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) in patients developing intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH), requiring abdominal decompression.

Design: Prospective study.

Material And Methods: A total of 16 patients with rAAA treated with an emergency EVAR were followed up hourly for intra-abdominal pressure (IAP), urine production and ip lactate, pyruvate, glycerol and glucose by microdialysis, analysed only at the end of the study.

Comprehensive geriatric assessment in oncology.

The incidence of cancer increases with advanced age and the majority of cancer deaths are in patients aged ≥ 65. The geriatric population is a heterogeneous group and a patient's chronologic age does not always correlate with underlying physiologic status. Oncologists need to be able to obtain information on physiologic and functional capacity in older patients in order to provide safe and effective treatment recommendations.

Falls and functional impairments in cancer survivors with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN): a University of Rochester CCOP study.

Purpose: This study was conducted in order to characterize the prevalence of falls and functional impairments (FIs) and their association with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) in cancer survivors.

Methods: We analyzed baseline assessments from a phase III RCT in cancer survivors with self-reported CIPN scores of >4 out of 10. Patients completed the EORTC QLQ-CIPN-20 for neuropathy and reported falls in the previous 3 months.