1,721,097 research outputs found
Ultrasonography in ulnar neuropathy at the elbow: relationships to clinical and electrophysiological findings
No full textINTRODUCTION:
Though ultrasonography (US) is commonly used in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), there are only few studies on the utility of US in ulnar neuropathy at the elbow (UNE). The aims of this study were to measure the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the ulnar nerve at the elbow and to correlate CSA values with clinical and electrophysiological findings.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
Thirty-three UNE patients (mean age 50.1 years) were consecutively enrolled. Diagnosis was based on clinical findings and slowing of the motor conduction velocity (MCV) of the ulnar nerve across the elbow. CSAs of the ulnar nerve were measured within the cubital tunnel at the level of the medial epicondyle (CSA-M) and approximately 2cm proximal to this point (CSA-I). Correlations between CSA and demographic, clinical (ordinal severity scale and self-administered symptom questionnaire), and electrophysiological findings (neurographic results and ordinal electrophysiological severity scale) were calculated using Spearman's correlation coefficient.
RESULTS:
The mean CSA-M and CSA-I were 9.6+/-8.5 and 9.3+/-5.6mm2, respectively. Fifteen (45.5%) and eight (24.5%) cases showed abnormal CSA-M and CSA-I values, respectively (mean+2S.D. compared to a control group of the same age). All cases with abnormal CSA-I had abnormal CSA-M except one. Significant relationships were only found between CSA-M and CSA-I with across elbow MCV, sensory action potential amplitude, and the electrophysiological severity scale score.
DISCUSSION:
Our study showed anomalous CSA values in less than 50% of the UNE cases. This is less than the reported percentages in the few literature reports. This difference may be due to our enrolment criteria or to the electrophysiological and US techniques. It is likely that the CSAs measured by axial scan at a fixed level of the cubital tunnel may have lower diagnostic sensitivity than the same technique used in CTS
The diagnosis of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal deposition disease: the good, the bad and… ultrasonography!
Full text linkThe diagnosis of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal deposition disease (CPPD) until recent years has been mainly based on the finding of typical crystals of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPP) in the synovial fluid of affected patients and on the presence of typical calcifications on plain X-rays...
Ulnar nerve compression neuropathy at Guyon's canal due to crutch-walking: case report with ultrasonographic nerve imaging
No full textThis report is the first account of Guyon's syndrome after the bilateral use of forearm crutches. Crutch palsy is usually neuropraxic in nature and associated with clinical and electrophysiologic recovery of nerve function, especially if patients are instructed to not bear excessive weight on the wrist. The present case history follows this pattern. In establishing the diagnosis of a focal compression neuropathy, a combination of clinical assessment and neurophysiologic studies are typically used. This report describes the additional application of ultrasound imaging to verify the diagnosis and to track changes in the appearance of the nerve during follow-up
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
A critical review of the available evidence on the diagnosis and clinical features of CPPD: do we really need imaging?
No full textImaging has been playing an important role in the pathogenetic and clinical characterisation of many rheumatic diseases, especially in the most recent years with the advent of many new, highly technological and promising techniques. Calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease (CPPD) benefited also from these new techniques, most of which can readily identify calcium crystals. Nowadays, imaging is used mainly to identify crystals in joints but given the complexity of CPPD, imaging should be used with an “holistic” approach in order to gain insights in the pathogenesis, spectrum of clinical manifestations and natural history of the disease. Furthermore, overlap or association of CPPD with other prevalent diseases of the elderly makes the differential diagnosis challenging. In this review, we provide a critical review of the current knowledge on the use of imaging both for the identification of crystals and for its application in clinical practice as an aid for determining the impact of the disease on patients. Key Points • CPPD is a complex disease with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and understanding of pathogenetic mechanisms and clinical phenotypes is essential for correct characterisation • Imaging has made important advances regarding identification of CPPD in recent years, and new, more sophisticated techniques are under investigation • Imaging has the potential to improve our knowledge on pathogenesis and clinical phenotypes of CPPD • Imaging techniques have to be tested thoroughly for reliability, discrimination and sensitivity to change before they can be implemented in clinical trials
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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