Efficacy of ultrasound assisted catheter-directed thrombolysis compared to catheter-directed thrombolysis in vitro.

Background: Catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) is an effective and safe endovascular method used in critical limb ischemia and many other thromboembolic events. Ultrasound-assisted catheter-directed thrombolysis (US-CDT) is an emerging technique considered to accelerate thrombolysis and therefore is supposed to improve outcome.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of US-CDT in comparison to standard CDT in vitro.

Psychometric properties of three single-item pain scales in patients with rheumatoid arthritis seen during routine clinical care: a comparative perspective on construct validity, reproducibility and internal responsiveness.

Objective: To investigate the construct validity, reproducibility (ie, retest reliability) and internal responsiveness to treatment change of common single-item scales measuring overall pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to investigate the corresponding effect of common pain-related comorbidities and medical consultation on these outcomes.

Methods: 236 patients with RA completed a set of questionnaires including a visual analogue scale (VAS), a numerical rating scale (NRS) and a verbal rating scale (VRS) measuring overall pain before and immediately after routine medical consultation as well as 1 week after the patient's visit. Construct validity and retest reliability were evaluated using the Bravais-Pearson correlation while standardised response means (SRM) were calculated for evaluating internal responsiveness.