Stricture rate after chemoradiotherapy and radiotherapy for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a 20-year experience.

Background: Definitive chemoradiation for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the first-line treatment in many centres. However, it is not without morbidity. We assess outcomes for patients treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy and radiotherapy.

Incidence of Achalasia in South Australia Based on Esophageal Manometry Findings.

Background & Aims: Achalasia is a disorder of esophageal motility with a reported incidence of 0.5 to 1.6 per 100,000 persons per year in Europe, Asia, Canada, and America.

Update in achalasia: what the surgeon needs to know.

Achalasia is a motility disorder encountered by surgeons during the investigation and treatment of dysphagia. Recent advances in manometry technology, a widely accepted new classification system and a new treatment rapidly gaining international acceptance, have changed the working knowledge required to successfully manage patients with achalasia. We review the Chicago classification subtypes of achalasia with type II achalasia being a predictor of success and type III achalasia a predictor of treatment failure.

Tracheo-oesophageal fistula after palliative treatment of oesophageal cancer.

We present a case of an 86-year-old male who presented with severe pneumonia in the context of having undergone radiotherapy and then an oesophageal stent insertion for palliation of oesophageal cancer. He was diagnosed with a tracheo-oesophageal fistula (TOF) which was successfully managed by deploying a second stent within the first stent.

Admission interview scores are associated with clinical performance in an undergraduate physiotherapy course: an observational study.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if there is an association between admission interview score and subsequent academic and clinical performance, in a four-year undergraduate physiotherapy course.

Design: Retrospective observational study.

Participants: 141 physiotherapy students enrolled in two entry year groups.

Clinician-performed ultrasound in assessing potentially malignant thyroid nodules.

Background: Ultrasound (US) is used in the workup of thyroid nodules. Ultrasonographic characteristics, such as an ill-defined margin, hypoechoicity or fine calcifications, are known to be associated with malignant thyroid lesions. The association between these characteristics and the risk of malignancy has been reported predominantly from series published where US is performed in radiology departments.

Grip strength dynamometry: reliability and validity for adults with upper limb burns.

Background: Upper limb (UL) burns can result in significant loss of strength and physical function. The aim of this study was to establish the reliability and validity of grip strength dynamometry (GSD) for measuring burn-affected UL strength over time.

Methods: A retrospective sample of adult participants (n=89) with UL burns was obtained from Royal Perth Hospital.

The recovery of repeated-sprint exercise is associated with PCr resynthesis, while muscle pH and EMG amplitude remain depressed.

The physiological equivalents of power output maintenance and recovery during repeated-sprint exercise (RSE) remain to be fully elucidated. In an attempt to improve our understanding of the determinants of RSE performance we therefore aimed to determine its recovery following exhaustive exercise (which affected intramuscular and neural factors) concomitantly with those of intramuscular concentrations of adenosine triphosphate [ATP], phosphocreatine [PCr] and pH values and electromyography (EMG) activity (a proxy for net motor unit activity) changes. Eight young men performed 10, 6-s all-out sprints on a cycle ergometer, interspersed with 30 s of recovery, followed, after 6 min of passive recovery, by five 6-s sprints, again interspersed by 30 s of passive recovery.

Lycra(®) arm splints improve movement fluency in children with cerebral palsy.

Aims: To determine changes in upper limb movement substructures that denote fluency of movement in children with cerebral palsy (CP) following lycra(®) splint wear. Secondarily, to explore the efficacy of lycra(®) splints for those with spastic and dystonic hypertonia.

Design: Randomised clinical trial whereby participants were randomised to parallel groups with waiting list control.

Elevated plasma tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 levels predict decreased survival in castration-resistant prostate cancer patients.

Background: Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) has paradoxical multifunctional roles in tumorigenesis: inhibition of the catalytic activity of matrix metalloproteinases and apoptosis as well as promotion of angiogenesis and tumor growth. Elevated TIMP-1 levels have been associated with a poorer prognosis in multiple cancers.

Methods: Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid plasma TIMP-1 was determined in 362 castration-resistant prostate cancer (PC) patients using a TIMP-1 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

High levels of serum TIMP-1 correlate with advanced disease and predict for poor survival in patients with multiple myeloma treated with novel agents.

Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) was evaluated in the pre-treatment serum of 55 newly diagnosed patients with symptomatic myeloma. TIMP-1 was elevated in 47% of patients and correlated with lytic bone disease and increased bone resorption. Importantly, TIMP-1 correlated with ISS stage (p=0.

Neuromuscular adaptations to eccentric strength training in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy.

Aim: To determine the neuromuscular outcomes of an eccentric strength-training programme for children and adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP).

Method: In this randomised, parallel-group trial with waiting control, 14 participants with CP (six males, eight females; mean age 11y, SD 2y range 9-15y), diagnosed with upper-limb spasticity were compared with 14 age- and sex-matched typically developing participants. Participants with CP completed a 6-week progressive resistance-strengthening programme, performing eccentric lengthening contractions of their upper limb three times a week.

Enhancing muscular qualities in untrained women: linear versus undulating periodization.

Purpose: This study compared linear (LP) and undulating periodization (UP) on strength changes in untrained women when total workload and average training intensity were matched by the end of training.

Methods: Twenty females (20 +/- 2 yr) were conditioned (3 wk) and assessed for one-repetition maximum squat (1RMSQ) and bench press (1RMBP) before being assigned to LP or UP training (9 wk), with training performed at 3 d.wk.

The physiological effects of IGF-1 (class 1:Ea transgene) over-expression on exercise-induced damage and adaptation in dystrophic muscles of mdx mice.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder in which muscle weakness and fragility contribute to ongoing muscle degeneration. Although exercise-induced muscle damage is associated with adaptation that protects normal muscle from further damage, exploiting this process to protect dystrophic muscle has been avoided for fear of inducing excessive muscle degeneration. However, muscle-specific over-expression of the class 1:Ea isoform of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) reduces myofibre necrosis in dystrophic mdx mice (a model for DMD) and, therefore, may enhance the adaptation process in response to eccentric exercise.

Knee strength and knee adduction moments following arthroscopic partial meniscectomy.

Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between muscular strength about the knee and knee joint moments during gait in patients who had undergone arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM).

Methods: One hundred and two APM patients and 42 age-matched nonoperated controls underwent strength testing and three-dimensional gait analysis. Patients were divided into weak and normal subgroups and compared with controls for spatiotemporal, kinematic, and kinetic gait parameters.

Serum TIMP-1 and response to the aromatase inhibitor letrozole versus tamoxifen in metastatic breast cancer.

Purpose: To determine the effect of elevated serum TIMP-1 on the response of patients with metastatic breast cancer to an aromatase inhibitor versus tamoxifen.

Patients And Methods: Five hundred twenty-two patients estrogen receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive first-line hormone therapy with letrozole or tamoxifen. Serum tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Fatigue in repeated-sprint exercise is related to muscle power factors and reduced neuromuscular activity.

The purpose of this study was (1) to determine the relationship between each individual's anaerobic power reserve (APR) [i.e., the difference between the maximum anaerobic (Pana) and aerobic power (Paer)] and fatigability during repeated-sprint exercise and (2) to examine the acute effects of repeated sprints on neuromuscular activity, as evidenced by changes in the surface electromyogram (EMG) signals.

Physical fitness and performance. Fatigue responses during repeated sprints matched for initial mechanical output.

Purpose: To compare muscle fatigability during two sets of repeated cycling sprints matched for initial mechanical output in a nonfatigued and fatigued state.

Methods: Eight young men performed 10, 6-s all-out sprints on a cycle ergometer interspersed with 30 s of recovery, followed, after 6 min of passive recovery, by five 6-s sprints, again interspersed by 30 s of recovery.

Results: On the basis of total work (TW), performance in sprint 11 (79.

Elevated plasma tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 level predicts decreased response and survival in metastatic breast cancer.

Background: Tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMPs) have at least 2 different functions. They inhibit the catalytic activity of matrix metalloproteinases, and they act as growth factors.

Methods: Pretreatment ethylenediamine tetracetic acid plasma TIMP-1 was assayed from 251 patients who were enrolled in a Phase III, second-line, hormone therapy trial, and from a control group of 50 healthy, postmenopausal women by using the TIMP-1 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Serum epidermal growth factor receptor/HER-2 predicts poor survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Background: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR, HER-1, and erbB1) is overexpressed in primary breast cancer and had been identified as a poor prognostic factor.

Methods: Pretreatment serum EGFR levels were quantified by using an enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay in a Phase III first-line trial of letrozole and tamoxifen and were correlated with patient outcomes.

Results: Serum EGFR levels in a control group of 117 healthy, postmenopausal women measured 64.