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Comment on: 'Quantification of anterior chamber reaction after intravitreal injections of conbercept and ranibizumab: a pilot study'.
No full textAttitudes of Pediatric Critical Care Staff Toward the Concept of "Resilience": The "Glass Half Full" Project.
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Predicting seizures in pregnant women with epilepsy: Development and external validation of a prognostic model.
No full textBACKGROUND
Seizures are the main cause of maternal death in women with epilepsy, but there are no tools for predicting seizures in pregnancy. We set out to develop and validate a prognostic model, using information collected during the antenatal booking visit, to predict seizure risk at any time in pregnancy and until 6 weeks postpartum in women with epilepsy on antiepileptic drugs.
METHODS AND FINDINGS
We used datasets of a prospective cohort study (EMPiRE) of 527 pregnant women with epilepsy on medication recruited from 50 hospitals in the UK (4 November 2011-17 August 2014). The model development cohort comprised 399 women whose antiepileptic drug doses were adjusted based on clinical features only; the validation cohort comprised 128 women whose drug dose adjustments were informed by serum drug levels. The outcome was epileptic (non-eclamptic) seizure captured using diary records. We fitted the model using LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) regression, and reported the performance using C-statistic (scale 0-1, values > 0.5 show discrimination) and calibration slope (scale 0-1, values near 1 show accuracy) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We determined the net benefit (a weighted sum of true positive and false positive classifications) of using the model, with various probability thresholds, to aid clinicians in making individualised decisions regarding, for example, referral to tertiary care, frequency and intensity of monitoring, and changes in antiepileptic medication. Seizures occurred in 183 women (46%, 183/399) in the model development cohort and in 57 women (45%, 57/128) in the validation cohort. The model included age at first seizure, baseline seizure classification, history of mental health disorder or learning difficulty, occurrence of tonic-clonic and non-tonic-clonic seizures in the 3 months before pregnancy, previous admission to hospital for seizures during pregnancy, and baseline dose of lamotrigine and levetiracetam. The C-statistic was 0.79 (95% CI 0.75, 0.84). On external validation, the model showed good performance (C-statistic 0.76, 95% CI 0.66, 0.85; calibration slope 0.93, 95% CI 0.44, 1.41) but with imprecise estimates. The EMPiRE model showed the highest net proportional benefit for predicted probability thresholds between 12% and 99%. Limitations of this study include the varied gestational ages of women at recruitment, retrospective patient recall of seizure history, potential variations in seizure classification, the small number of events in the validation cohort, and the clinical utility restricted to decision-making thresholds above 12%. The model findings may not be generalisable to low- and middle-income countries, or when information on all predictors is not available.
CONCLUSIONS
The EMPiRE model showed good performance in predicting the risk of seizures in pregnant women with epilepsy who are prescribed antiepileptic drugs. Integration of the tool within the antenatal booking visit, deployed as a simple nomogram, can help to optimise care in women with epilepsy
Pedicled local flaps: a reliable reconstructive tool for partial breast defects.
No full textBackground
Breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by radiotherapy has gained great popularity in the treatment of breast cancer over the past years. However, radiation therapy can lead to many unfavourable aesthetic outcomes including significant volume/skin deficiency, nipple areola complex distortion and skin contraction. We present our experience in using pedicled perforator flaps to tackle the resultant partial breast defects or deformities.
Methods
A retrospective data analysis study on Thirty patients with post breast conserving surgery (BCS) partial breast defects who were managed with pedicled per-forator flaps including muscle sparing latissimus dorsi muscle flap (MSLD), thoraco-dorsal artery perforator flap (TDAP) and intercostal artery perforator flap (ICAP) in the period between December 2008 and December 2018.
Results
Defects were in all quadrants apart from the upper inner quadrant. The reconstructive techniques included TDAP flap 6/30 (20%), MSLD flap 20/30 (66.7%), AICAP flap 4/30 (13.3%). Age ranges 22-35 (mean 29). All flaps showed complete survival, one nipple areola complex superficial epidermolysis was experienced, and one patient presented with fat necrosis. No resultant donor site morbidity apart from scar revision for excess skin at the axillary fold in one patient. The overall satisfaction reached 94% with only 8 patients who required lipofilling to maximize the cosmetic outcome.
Conclusions
The availability of a range of reliable techniques including thoracodorsal/intercostal artery perforator flap (TAP/ICAP) and muscle sparing lattissimus dorsi flap (MSLD) allow optimum results to be achieved in the treatment of partial breast defects following breast conserving surgery
Excluding myeloma diagnosis using revised thresholds for serum free light chain ratios and M-protein levels.
No full textOutcomes of Tumour Control from Primary Treatment of Hypopharyngeal Cancer.
No full textHypopharynx cancer continues to pose a clinically challenging head and neck subsite, driven not only by the unique set of patient, anatomic and disease factors but also by the paucity of robust clinical data to guide clinical decision making. The standard of care of radical surgery (pharyngolaryngectomy) in combination with postoperative radiotherapy was the previously accepted norm in the setting of advanced hypopharynx cancer, but this was often at the expense of significant morbidity. In the absence of survival benefit for advanced staged disease with radical surgical approaches, over the last 2 decades, the philosophy of quality of life in survivors has driven the agenda for new therapeutic approaches. The adoption of functional larynx preservation strategies has seen a paradigm shift in the treatment of this subsite since the 1990s with the advent of chemoradiation and intensity-modulated radiotherapy, thereby introducing a reducing trend for radical surgery. However, radical surgery (pharyngolaryngectomy) has a role in the non-functioning larynx (either pre- or post-treatment), in advanced volume disease and the more technically challenging salvage setting because of residual or recurrent disease. In earlier stage disease, transoral laser microsurgery and robotic surgery have shown good oncological benefits. Crucially, determining appropriate personalised treatment decisions in this challenging cohort of patients requires discussion within a multidisciplinary team framework
A Comparison of Phenotypic and Functional Properties of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and Multipotent Adult Progenitor Cells.
No full textBoth Multipotent Adult Progenitor Cells and Mesenchymal Stromal Cells are bone-marrow derived, non-haematopoietic adherent cells, that are well-known for having immunomodulatory and pro-angiogenic properties, whilst being relatively non-immunogenic. However, they are phenotypically and functionally distinct cell types, which has implications for their efficacy in different settings. In this review we compare the phenotypic and functional properties of these two cell types, to help in determining which would be the superior cell type for different applications
Comparison of risk scores in the PSC arena.
No full textPrimary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a rare liver disease with high clinical burden and significant heterogeneity in outcome. The UK-PSC risk scores(1), based upon a national observational cohort study of >1000 patients from across the UK, provide a robust evaluation of PSC risk for individual patients based on clinical predictors of outcome