Self-Reported Quality of Life Outcomes in Aphasia Using Life Participation Approach Values: 1-Year Outcomes.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a newly initiated aphasia center program using Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (LPAA) values.

Design: Evidence-based practice quality improvement project.

Setting: Ambulatory care aphasia center part of a larger health care system.

Clinical Studies of Biofield Therapies: Summary, Methodological Challenges, and Recommendations.

Biofield therapies are noninvasive therapies in which the practitioner explicitly works with a client's biofield (interacting fields of energy and information that surround living systems) to stimulate healing responses in patients. While the practice of biofield therapies has existed in Eastern and Western cultures for thousands of years, empirical research on the effectiveness of biofield therapies is still relatively nascent. In this article, we provide a summary of the state of the evidence for biofield therapies for a number of different clinical conditions.

Pregait balance rehabilitation in acute stroke patients.

Rehabilitation interventions designed to enhance balance control in individuals with acute stroke are quite limited. The goal was to develop and assess a technique of early pregait balance training involving the use of a combination of force platform visual feedback and the unweighting system in individuals with recent stroke. A total of 28 individuals with acute stroke were randomly divided into the experimental and control groups: individuals included in the experimental group received 1 week of treatment on the basis of retraining balance utilizing visual biofeedback (Balance Master) while provided with a body weight support harness system, whereas the individuals in the control group received conventional treatment.

Predictors of returning to oral feedings after feeding tube placement for patients poststroke during inpatient rehabilitation.

Objectives: To identify the frequency and characteristics of patients admitted to inpatient rehabilitation (IPR) following a stroke who are able return to oral feedings and have their feeding tube (FT) removed prior to discharge from IPR, the timing of FT removal, and implications for outcomes.

Methods: Medical records were identified by admission rehabilitation impairment code (RIC) for stroke (RIC 01), and reviews were completed by two physiatrists and two speech language pathologists. At random, 25% of the charts were reviewed by a second rater for data quality control.

Solar simulator-induced phototoxicity of the furoquinoline alkaloid dictamnine compared to 8-methoxypsoralen and 5-methoxypsoralen.

Dictamnine, a furoquinoline alkaloid of the Rutaceae plant family, has been shown to be mutagenic and phototoxic in bacteria and yeasts. Here, we have investigated the phototoxic effect of dictamnine in human Jurkat T cells and HaCaT keratinocytes. Dictamnine was isolated from the roots of DICTAMNUS ALBA L.

Music, imagery, touch, and prayer as adjuncts to interventional cardiac care: the Monitoring and Actualisation of Noetic Trainings (MANTRA) II randomised study.

Background: Data from a pilot study suggested that noetic therapies-healing practices that are not mediated by tangible elements-can reduce preprocedural distress and might affect outcomes in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. We undertook a multicentre, prospective trial of two such practices: intercessory prayer and music, imagery, and touch (MIT) therapy.

Methods: 748 patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention or elective catheterisation in nine USA centres were assigned in a 2x2 factorial randomisation either off-site prayer by established congregations of various religions or no off-site prayer (double-blinded) and MIT therapy or none (unmasked).