Increasing Participation in Daily Activities among US Adults with Arthritis.

This home-use study assessed participants' perceptions regarding a variety of life-style measures after taking acetaminophen extended-relief caplets or placebo as instructed for 10 consecutive days to reduce mild-to-moderate pain of osteoarthritis. Methods: Participants maintained usual daily activities. Screening questionnaire responses assessed participants' daily pain level and pain management strategies.

Future of caring for an aging population: trends, technology, and caregiving.

Demographic trends clearly indicate that the US population aging patterns will continue to skew increasingly older for decades to come. Driven largely by healthcare and environmental improvements, the average life expectancy in the industrialized world has increased almost 30 years in the last century, allowing people to routinely live well into their 70s and beyond. A concomitant trend has also emerged as a result of increased longevity - the increased number of family caregivers responsible for managing the diverse needs of an elderly spouse or parent.

Cannulation of the aortic branches using ultrasound guidance. An animal study.

Catheter placement by ultrasound may reduce radiation, improve positioning, and allow the use of echo contrast agents for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. To evaluate its utility in the peripheral and coronary vascular beds, a preshaped 20 MHz Doppler catheter was inserted into the femoral artery for renal artery, or into the right carotid artery for left coronary artery cannulation in five dogs. Ultrasonic imaging of the vascular structure and catheter was provided by either transabdominal or transesophageal ultrasound.

The effect of vascular curvature on three-dimensional reconstruction of intravascular ultrasound images.

Objective: To characterize the effect of vessel curvature on the geometric accuracy of conventional three-dimensional reconstruction (3DR) algorithms for intravascular ultrasound image data.

Background: A common method of 3DR for intravascular ultrasound image data involves geometric reassembly and volumetric interpolation of a spatially related sequence of tomographic cross sections generated by an ultrasound catheter withdrawn at a constant rate through a vascular segment of interest. The resulting 3DR is displayed as a straight segment, with inherent vascular curvature neglected.

Accurate three-dimensional reconstruction of intravascular ultrasound data. Spatially correct three-dimensional reconstructions.

Background: The geometrical accuracy of conventional three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction methods for intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) data (coronary and peripheral) is hampered by the inability to register spatial image orientation and by respiratory and cardiac motion. The objective of this work was the development of improved IVUS reconstruction techniques.

Methods And Results: We developed a 3D position registration method that identifies the spatial coordinates of an in situ IVUS catheter by use of simultaneous ECG-gated biplane digital cinefluoroscopy.