1,720,959 research outputs found
SPINAL CORD INJURY PATIENTS WITH SPASTICITY AND PRESSURE SORES: PRELIMINARY REPORT ON RECONSTRUCTION WITH BOTULINUM TOXIN TREATED MUSCLE FLAPS
No full textBackground: Pressure sores are frequent complications in spinal cord injured patients (SCI). Unfortunately, spasticity may be associated to SCI, muscle spasms can
be very intense in the post-operative period after pressure sore treatment and may cause wound dehiscence.
Aim of the study is to investigate the efficacy of botulinum toxin (BTX) in preventing muscle flap spasms and complications in pressure sores treatment.
Materials and methods: Prospective, observational, single center study on consecutive adult spinal cord injury patients affected by spasticity and pressure sore, with
indication to surgical debridement and reconstruction with muscle flap. Muscle flap was prepared by injection of 100 units of BTX-A 10 days preoperatively.
Collected data include patient and wound information, post-operative need for increased dose of anti-spasticity medications compared to the preoperative period,
time to complete wound healing, follow up at 6 months.
Results: Five adult patients with SCI, spasticity and trochanteric pressure sore were included in the study. All the patients were male, median age was 48. All the
patients were paraplegic, and the etiology was spinal cord trauma. All sores were IV degree. Osteomyelitis was confirmed histologically in all the patients. None of the
patients needed an increased dose of anti-spasticity medications, compared to the preoperative period. A complete healing of the wound was observed in all the cases
3 weeks after surgery. No recurrences were observed at a six months follow-up.
Conclusion: BTX-A can be a useful method to prevent complications in SCI patients and pressures sores, when a muscle flap is planned
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Osteomyelitis of the pelvic bones in patients with spinal cord injury: Is magnetic resonance useful for preoperative diagnosis?
No full textAim of the study: We report a prospective, observational, single-centre study on adult patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) and pressure sores undergoing surgical
debridement and reconstruction at Montecatone Rehabilitation Institute from July 2013 to January 2016. The aim is to assess usefulness of magnetic resonance (MR)
in pre-operative diagnosis of osteomyelitis.
Materials and methods: All the patients underwent preoperative MRI each MRI was evaluated independently by two radiologists and the exam was considered
positive for osteomyelitis only when the two radiologists agreed on the diagnosis. All the surgical procedures consisted of a wide debridement of soft and bony tissues
and reconstruction: bone specimens were collected and sent for culture and histopathological evaluation. Results of MRI and histopathology were compared.
Results: 85 patients were included in the study. The two radiologists working independently agreed on the diagnosis of osteomyelitis in 96% of the cases. Pre-operative
MRI was considered positive for osteomyelitis in 45 cases. According to histology, osteomyelitis was diagnosed in 40 patients. MRI findings and histology were
concordant in 61% of cases; 19 false positive and 14 false negative cases were found. Sensitivity and specificity of MR in the diagnosis of osteomyelitis were 65% and
58% respectively, with a positive predictive value of 58% and a negative predictive value of 65%.
Conclusion: In our cohort sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of MR for the diagnosis of osteomyelitis in patients with
SCI and pressure ulcers are lower than previously described. Our findings suggest that MRI cannot be considered a reliable diagnostic technique for the diagnosis of
osteomyelitis. We can conclude that MRI is not indispensable pre-operatively in SCI patients with pressure sores, and that all the patient should undergo a wide soft
and bony tissues debridement as if they were all affected by osteomyelitis. Histological diagnosis is useful to decide the timing of antimicrobial therapy, that should
be planned based on the results of the surgical specimen culture. Further studies are needed to investigate this topic
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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