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Using an Electronic Diary to Bolster Self-Esteem in Persons with Early-Stage Dementia
No full textPersons with early-stage dementia are at risk for decreasing self-esteem because they perceive discrepancies between their actual self-state and their preclinical self-state. We developed a psychological intervention that uses diaries with entries related to positive self-worth for persons with early-stage dementia. We report three exploratory case studies with a 59-year-old male with frontotemporal dementia (Mr. A), and a 53-year-old male (Mr. B) and a 46-year-old female (Ms. C) with Alzheimer’s disease. Participants were asked to read their diaries focusing either on achievement, positive interpersonal, or other themes, and rate their self-esteem before and after. Mr. A demonstrated improvement of self-esteem after reading diaries focused on achievement themes. Mr. B demonstrated improvement after reading diaries focused on interpersonal themes. However, Ms. C did not show improvement of self-esteem. These results suggest that reading diaries focused on achievement or positive interpersonal themes could bolster the self-esteem of some persons with early-stage dementia
Alcohol Use and Depression: Public Health and Clinical Implications
No full textAlcohol is used on a national level as a social relaxant. Yet, misuse of alcohol can lead to considerably harms. In clinical psychiatry, the presence of comorbid alcohol abuse and depression are commonly encountered. This presents a challenging scenario for clinicians in terms of diagnostic conundrums, prognostic issues and treatment paradigms. This article reviews findings of key studies in the subject and offers practical suggestions to workers in the field. It also highlights the need for governments and public health agencies to focus on this important and highly prevalent problem
Differences in Ethnic Background between Regular and Forensic Youth Mental Health Care Patients
No full textThe ethnic composition of the group of patients treated at both regular and forensic youth mental health care in a big city area in the Netherlands was compared to that of the regional youth population. In this way more accurate information about the mental health care utilization of different ethnic groups was obtained. Based on patient and population statistics, treatment percentages and relative risks were calculated for the major ethnic groups with Dutch natives as a reference. For most immigrant children (age 5-10) the relative risk on receiving regular mental health treatment was about half of that of their Dutch native peers. For the adolescents (age 11-19) the results of immigrants compared to Dutch natives were about the same, whereas the relative risk on treatment in forensic facilities was much higher for immigrant youths than for Dutch natives. Because it is known from epidemiological research that the prevalence of child and adolescent mental disorders is at least as high for ethnic minority groups as for majorities, we concluded that the accessibility of the regular and the forensic child and adolescent mental health facilities was strongly biased by ethnic factors.Â
Case Report: Cardiovertor-Defibrillator Implantation in an Isolated PLSVC with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
No full textPersistent Left Superior Vena Cava (PLSVC) has an estimated incidence of 0.2-0.8% in the general population and 3-10% in patients with known congenital heart disease [1]. A rare anatomic variation of LSVC occurs in up to 0.13% of otherwise normal individuals where both brachiocephalic venous systems drain into a persistent LSVC [1]. We describe a patient with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and malignant ventricular arrhythmias in whom this rare malformation was discovered at the time of implantable cardioverter–defibrillator (ICD) implant
Unroofed Coronary Sinus and Persistent Left Superior Vena Cava as a Cause of Complication after Surgical Correction of a Double Outlet Right Ventricle
No full textUnroofed Coronary Sinus (URCS) is a rare cardiac malformation, which was first described by Raghib et al. [1] in 1965, characterized by partial or complete fenestration between the coronary sinus and the left atrium. It is frequently associated with the existence of a left superior vena cava (PLSVC) and the clinical outcome is variable, from behaviour which is similar to an interatrial septal defect to the possibility of paradoxical embolism due to a right-left shunt at the level of the left atrium.It can also be associated to other heart disorders, such as atrioventricular septal defects, interventricular communication, interatrial communication, cortriatriatum, tetralogy of Fallot or partial anomalous venous drainage and, if not diagnosed prior to the main surgical correction, may lead to post-surgical complications.We present the case of a young infant with Double Outlet Right Ventricle with subaortic ventricular septal defect and side by side great arteries, persistent left superior vena cava and ostium secundum atrial septal defect who underwent surgery to correct the septal defects. Post-surgical evolution was difficult, however she recovered after diagnosis and treatment for an unroofed coronary sinus
Measuring Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential Using Two Different Procedures.
No full textLatest developments in technology has equipped the clinician’s ability to evaluate otolithic function through VEMP testing. The present study was taken up to investigate the changes in the VEMP parameters while recording VEMP response with visual feedback system to control EMG. VEMP testing was administered on 20 participants between 20-40 years of age. The study results showed no statistically significant difference in amplitude and latency of cVEMP and oVEMP responses with and without visual feedback system. However, with visual feedback system standard deviations were observed to be reduced for both cVEMP and oVEMP responses. Hence we can conclude that using the visual feedback system to monitor the muscle contraction in otological disorders is easier and more reliable than testing without visual feedback
Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder among DPOAEs Screened Infants
No full textObjective: Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) characterized by absent or severely abnormal auditory brainstem response (ABR) with intact outer hair cells functions, as evidenced by the presence of evoked otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) and/or cochlear microphonics. In Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS), all infants screened for hearing loss either by OAEs or ABR or both of them. The purpose of this work was to study ANSD among infants passed OAEs based UNHS program.Design: UNHS distortion product OAEs (DPOAEs) based program were done for 10281 infants within six years duration. Click evoked ABR were performed to high risk for hearing loss infants and on parents concern about hearing loss for their passed UNHS program children among attendee of audiology and ORL clinics. Tympanograms and behavioral thresholds were performed for the study group.Results: Thirteen infants met the inclusion criteria of ANSD were discovered among passed UNHS program infants (0.12%). Unilateral ANSD were diagnosed in 2 infants (the other ears were normal in one infant and ABR was preserved down to mild hearing loss in the other infant). All ANSD infants had absent click evoked ABR at the maximum presentation level of 100 dBnHL, the acoustic reflexes were absent while DPOAEs were presented in all affected ears.Discussion and Conclusion: In spite of passing UNHS OAEs based program still some infants are missed for the early diagnosis of ANSD which mandate special concern in the screening procedures to be more inclusive for the diagnosis of those infants
Improving Deaf Children’s Working Memory through Training
No full textThe aim of this study was to design and to assess the effectiveness of a working memory (WM) intervention for deaf children. A review of factors that explain deaf students’ poor results in WM tasks was used to identify deaf participants' strengths and difficulties in WM tasks. This review formed the basis for the design of the WM training program assessed in the study.Participants were 77 children in a comparison group and 73 in an intervention group, with the mean age of 8y5m at the start of the program. The participants' severity of hearing loss was at least moderate; approximately 68% of the children had one cochlear implant and the rest had hearing aids only. The design was quasi-experimental: teachers rather than children were assigned either to the comparison or the intervention group.The children were pre- and post-tested in three WM tasks; the regression factor score was used as the measure of their WM. The intervention was implemented by the teachers and comprised two types of games: teacher led games, during which the teachers taught the children rehearsal strategies that combined linguistic and visual-spatial encoding, and web-based games, which the children played without a tutor and involved biased competition with the aim of developing attention control.An analysis of covariance (controlling for pre-test WM scores, age, cognitive ability and pre- to post-test interval) showed that the intervention group differed significantly from the comparison group at post-test; Cohen's d effect size was 0.78. We conclude that it is possible to improve deaf children's performance in WM measures by training that targets their attention problems and teaches them rehearsal strategies
Human Platelet Lysates Successfully Replace Fetal Bovine Serum in Adipose-Derived Adult Stem Cell Culture
No full textFetal bovine serum (FBS) is still the gold standard as a cell culture medium additive due to its high level of growth stimulatory factors. Although supplementation of growth media with FBS is common practice in cell and tissue culture, FBS bears a number of disadvantages and its use has been questioned recently: (1) an ill-defined medium supplement, (2) qualitative and quantitative batch-to-batch variations, and (3) animal welfare concerns regarding the harvest of bovine fetal blood.Recently, we were able to show the capacity of human platelet α-granule lysates to replace FBS in a variety of human and animal cell culture systems. Thus, lysates of human donor platelets may become a valuable non animal-derived substitute for FBS in cultures of mammalian cells and in human and animal stem cell technology.Stem cells may become the future for human-based alternative to animal testing, in vitro toxicology, and drug safety assessment. New stem cell-based test systems are continuously established, and their performance under animal-derived component free culture conditions has to be defined in prevalidation and validation studies. In order to accomplish these tasks, adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSC) were expanded in media supplemented with platelet lysates. Proliferation assays by resazurin and WST-8 compared with direct cell counting confirmed the growth promoting effect of platelet lysate, comparable to high FBS. Furthermore, we established culture conditions that ADSC kept their undifferentiated state as determined by CD73, CD90 and CD105 expression and the lack of negative marker CD45. Preliminary tests whether ADSC can be differentiated towards adipogenic, osteogenic, or chondrogenic phenotypes under platelet lysate supplemented growth conditions were also successful
Trans-Encapsidation of Flock House virus with Tobacco Mosaic virus Structural Proteins.
No full textFlock House virus (FHV) encodes a viral polymerase supporting autonomous replication of the FHV genome which makes it an attractive candidate for viral transgene expression studies and targeted RNA delivery into host cells. As FHV viral genome size is strictly limited by native FHV capsid, the goal of this study was to determine if this restriction could be eliminated by inserting a non-native viral packaging signal from Tobacco Mosaic virus (TMV) to allow for trans-encapsidation by TMV coat. FHV was adapted to express enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) and several FHV-GFP expressing clones were generated from which full length RNA transcripts were generated. Fluorescent microscopy was used to confirm GFP expression after FHV-GFP RNA transfection into baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cells. The TMV origin of assembly (OA) was introduced into the most robust GFP expressing FHV construct and GFP expression was used to ensure functional FHV RNA 1 activity. RNA from the best clone, FHV-C2-GFP-OA, was then mixed with TMV coat protein and monitored for encapsidation. The production of TMV-like rod shaped nanoparticles indicated that FHV-GFP-OA RNA can be encapsidated in vitro by purified TMV coat protein. This is the first demonstration of replication-independent but specific encapsidation/packaging of the FHV genome by heterologous plant viral structural proteins while maintaining FHV genome replication capacity