Background: Midfoot pain is common but poorly understood, with radiographs often indicating no anomalies. This study aimed to describe bone, joint and soft tissue changes and to explore associations between MRI-detected abnormalities and clinical symptoms (pain and disability) in a group of adults with midfoot pain, but who were radiographically negative for osteoarthritis.
Methods: Community-based participants with midfoot pain underwent an MRI scan of one foot and scored semi-quantitatively using the Foot OsteoArthritis MRI Score (FOAMRIS).
Background: Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome (GTPS) is a prevalent and debilitating cause of lateral hip pain. Physiotherapists often prescribe exercises and educate patients on self-management strategies. Virtual consultations have increased since COVID-19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
September 2024
Acoelomorpha is a broadly accepted clade of bilaterian animals made up of the fast-evolving, morphologically simple, mainly marine flatworm lineages Acoela and Nemertodermatida. Phylogenomic studies support Acoelomorpha's close relationship with the slowly evolving and similarly simplistic , together forming the phylum Xenacoelomorpha. The phylogenetic placement of Xenacoelomorpha amongst bilaterians is controversial, with some studies supporting Xenacoelomorpha as the sister group to all other bilaterians, implying that their simplicity may be representative of early bilaterians.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne of the main causes of implant failure and revision surgery in total hip replacement (THR) is aseptic loosening often caused by the accumulation of wear debris arising between the contact surfaces of the acetabular cup and femoral head during activities of daily living (ADL's). However, limited information is available regarding the contact force pathways between these two surfaces during specific ADL's. In this study, through musculoskeletal modelling, we aimed to estimate the orientation of the hip contact force pathway on the acetabular cup.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Trauma plays an important role in the development and maintenance of psychosis. However, it is still under-examined in daily clinical practice. The current study investigated the rates of recording of trauma-exposure in the clinical histories of a first-episode psychosis (FEP) cohort attending an early intervention psychosis service.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCAR) are a group of delayed presumed T-cell mediated hypersensitivities associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Despite their shared global healthcare burden and impact, the clinical phenotypes, genomic predisposition, drug causality, and treatment outcomes may vary. We describe the establishment and results from the first Australasian registry for SCAR (AUS-SCAR), that via a collaborative network advances strategies for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of SCAR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProblem: The interleukin-17 (IL-17) family includes pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-17A-F with important roles in mucosal defence, barrier integrity and tissue regeneration. IL-17A can be dysregulated in fertility complications, including pre-eclampsia, endometriosis and miscarriage. Because mammalian subclasses (eutherian, metatherian, and prototherian) have different related reproductive strategies, IL-17 genes and proteins were investigated in the three mammalian classes to explore their involvement in female fertility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMigraine is a leading cause of disability worldwide, yet it remains underrecognized and undertreated, especially in the pediatric and adolescent population. Chronic migraine occurs approximately in 1% of children and adolescents requiring preventive treatment. Topiramate is the only FDA-approved preventative treatment for children older than 12 years of age, but there is conflicting evidence regarding its efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Viridans group streptococci (VGS) bloodstream infection (BSI) frequently occurs in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, and is associated with infective endocarditis (IE) in up to 20% of cases in the general population.
Objectives: In cancer patients receiving chemotherapy with VGS BSI, we aimed to: (i) determine the incidence of infective complications including IE, (ii) assess the utility of echocardiography in this patient population, (iii) determine the duration and type of antimicrobial therapy received for monomicrobial infections, and (iv) determine the evolution of antimicrobial resistance.
Methods: VGS BSIs (excluding Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pseudopneumoniae) in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy were identified from a statewide public pathology database between 2013 and 2022 at our tertiary centre.
Although there has been a surge in physician assistant (PA) programs in the United States, PA programs have concurrently experienced challenges with partnering with a sufficient pool of clinical training sites. During the long-lived fee-for-service era, many programs have relied on transactional relationships with individual clinicians, hospitals, community health centers, private practices, and other entities to provide the required clinical experiences for PA learners. These arrangements often involved bargaining a supervised clinical experience in exchange for continuing medical education credit or other incentives included in a clinician's benefits package.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEsophageal adenocarcinoma is a prominent example of cancer characterized by frequent amplifications in oncogenes. However, the mechanisms leading to amplicons that involve breakage-fusion-bridge cycles and extrachromosomal DNA are poorly understood. Here, we use 710 esophageal adenocarcinoma cases with matched samples and patient-derived organoids to disentangle complex amplicons and their associated mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: The aim of this study was to produce clinical consensus recommendations about the non-surgical treatment of children with Perthes' disease. The recommendations are intended to support clinical practice in a condition for which there is no robust evidence to guide optimal care.
Methods: A two-round, modified Delphi study was conducted online.
DNA sensing is important for antiviral immunity. The DNA sensor cGAS synthesizes 2'3'-cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP), a second messenger that activates STING, which induces innate immunity. cGAMP not only activates STING in the cell where it is produced but cGAMP also transfers to other cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Watershed infarcts (WIs) are a distinct type of stroke with a varying clinical presentation that affects the border areas between the territories of two cerebral arteries and are typically associated with hemodynamic impairment and internal carotid artery stenosis. However, there is a paucity of data concerning its association with the history of recreational substance and drug abuse.
Methods/case Report: This case report presents a unique instance of bilateral internal watershed infarcts in a 23-year-old male with a history of polysubstance abuse, including methadone and cocaine.
Background: Although Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep A) is the sixth-most common infectious disease globally, its transmission within the household remains an understudied driver of infection. We undertook a systematic review to better understand the transmission of Strep A among people within the home, while highlighting opportunities for prevention.
Methods: A search strategy was applied to 5 databases between September 2022 and March 2023.
The dynamic orientation of total hip replacement acetabular cups during walking may vary substantially from their assumed position at surgical implantation and may vary between individuals. The scale of this effect is of interest for both pre-clinical device testing and for pre-operative surgical planning. This work aimed to evaluate (1) patient variation in dynamic cup orientation; (2) whether walking speed was a candidate proxy measure for the dynamic cup orientation; and (3) the relationships between dynamic cup orientation angles and planar pelvic angles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: COVID-19 catalysed a rapid move to provide care away from the hospital using online communication platforms. Technology enabled care (TEC) continues to be an important driver in progressing future healthcare services. Due to the complex and chronic nature of conditions seen within paediatric rheumatology, TEC may lead to better outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Optimising the management of vancomycin by achieving target therapeutic concentrations early during therapy has been associated with reduced mortality and morbidity. Despite the availability of guidelines and training, the management of vancomycin remains suboptimal.
Objectives: The primary outcome was the development of interventions and associated implementation strategies to optimise the management of vancomycin therapy.
Objective: To explore, from patients' perspectives, the symptoms and impact of Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) on the feet of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc-RP), and to identify which foot-related domains are important to patients.
Methods: Forty participants (34 women) with SSc-RP took part in one of six focus groups held in the United Kingdom or United States. Participants were purposively sampled to ensure diversity in disease type, duration, and ethnicity.
This study aimed to develop and evaluate a new step-count algorithm, StepMatchDTWBA, for the accurate measurement of physical activity using wearable devices in both healthy and pathological populations. We conducted a study with 30 healthy volunteers wearing a wrist-worn MOX accelerometer (Maastricht Instruments, NL). The StepMatchDTWBA algorithm used dynamic time warping (DTW) barycentre averaging to create personalised templates for representative steps, accounting for individual walking variations.
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