Reidfucc307

Objective To evaluate the long-term safety and efficacy of the Clip coupler attached to the stapes head in patients with unilateral congenital aural atresia (CAA). Methods This single-center retrospective study included 16 Mandarin-speaking patients who had unilateral microtia accompanied by CAA. All patients were divided into two groups the short-term follow-up group (n = 9) and the long-term follow-up group (n = 7). The floating mass transducer of the Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) was positioned in the stapes head by the Clip coupler. The safety of the VSB was investigated by comparing preoperative and postoperative bone-conduction (BC) thresholds as well as by complications. The effectiveness was evaluated by functional gain (FG), word recognition score (WRS), speech reception threshold (SRT) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Results Pre- and post-operative BC thresholds were no different in all patients. And no complications developed. VSB-aided thresholds in the free-field had improved significantly in both short- and long-term follow-up groups. The improvements of WRS were observed in two groups. The monosyllabic VSB-aided WRS in the long-term follow-up group was significantly higher than that in the short-term follow-up group. When speech was from the impaired ear and noise presented to the side of normal ear (SVSBNCL), lower SNRs were found in two groups after VSB implantation. However, there was no statistical difference in aided SNR between the two groups at SVSBNCL status. Conclusions Our results show that the FMT connected to the stapes head is a secure and useful device for patients with unilateral CHL/MHL, not only in terms of improved hearing thresholds, but also improved speech intelligibility in quiet and noisy environments.The 'hook effect' describes a phenomenon in quantitative PCR (qPCR) amplification curves where fluorescence values decrease following an initial amplification phase. We propose that in intercalating dye-based qPCR, the 'hook effect' is due to the amplification of heterogeneous but related DNA targets. The decrease in fluorescence at later cycles occurs because the related products self-anneal to form a DNA heteroduplex with a melt temperature below the temperature at which the fluorescence measurement is made. We show this experimentally using qPCR of Alu family repetitive DNA elements.Background Switching between antiarrhythmic drugs is timed to minimize arrhythmia recurrence and adverse reactions. Dronedarone and amiodarone have similar electrophysiological profiles; however, little is known about the optimal timing of switching, given the long half-life of amiodarone. Methods The ARTEMIS atrial fibrillation (AF) Loading and Long-term studies evaluated switching patients with paroxysmal/persistent AF from amiodarone to dronedarone. Patients were randomized based on the timing of the switch immediate, after a 2-week, or after a 4-week washout of amiodarone. Patients who did not convert to sinus rhythm after amiodarone loading underwent electrical cardioversion. The primary objectives were, for the Loading study, to evaluate recurrence of AF ≤60 days; and for the Long-term study, to profile the pharmacokinetics of dronedarone and its metabolite according to different timings of dronedarone initiation. this website Results In ARTEMIS AF Loading, 176 were randomized (planned 768) after a 28 ± 2 days load of oral amiodarone. Atrial fibrillation recurrence trended less in the immediate switch versus 4-week washout group (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.65 [97.5% CI 0.34-1.23]; P = .14) and in the 2-week washout versus the 4-week washout group (HR = 0.75 [97.5% CI 0.41-1.37]; P = .32). In ARTEMIS AF Long-term, 108 patients were randomized (planned 105). Pharmacokinetic analyses (n = 97) showed no significant differences for dronedarone/SR35021 exposures in the 3 groups. Conclusion The trial was terminated early due to poor recruitment and so our findings are limited by low numbers. However, immediate switching from amiodarone to dronedarone appeared to be well tolerated and safe.Objective We aimed to demonstrate that electroarthrography (EAG) measures streaming potentials originating in the cartilage extracellular matrix during load bearing through electrodes adhered to skin surrounding an articular joint. Design Equine metacarpophalangeal joints were subjected to simulated physiological loads while (1) replacing synovial fluid with immersion buffers of different electrolyte concentrations and (2) directly degrading cartilage with trypsin. Results An inverse relationship between ionic strength and EAG coefficient was detected. Compared to native synovial fluid, EAG coefficients increased (P less then 0.05) for 5 of 6 electrodes immersed in 0.1X phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) (0.014 M NaCl), decreased (P less then 0.05) for 4 of 6 electrodes in 1X PBS (0.14 M NaCl), and decreased (P less then 0.05) for all 6 electrodes in 10X PBS (1.4 M NaCl). This relationship corresponds to similar studies where streaming potentials were directly measured on cartilage. EAG coefficients, obtained after trypsin degradation, were reduced (P less then 0.05) in 6 of 8, and 7 of 8 electrodes, during simulated standing and walking, respectively. Trypsin degradation was confirmed by direct cartilage assessments. Streaming potentials, measured by directly contacting cartilage, indicated lower cartilage stiffness (P less then 10-5). Unconfined compression data revealed reduced Em, representing proteoglycan matrix stiffness (P = 0.005), no change in Ef, representing collagen network stiffness (P = 0.15), and no change in permeability (P = 0.24). Trypsin depleted proteoglycan as observed by both dimethylmethylene blue assay (P = 0.0005) and safranin-O stained histological sections. Conclusion These data show that non-invasive EAG detects streaming potentials produced by cartilage during joint compression and has potential to become a diagnostic tool capable of detecting early cartilage degeneration.This study aimed to quantify the contributions and capacities of leg muscles to the body's center of mass (COM) acceleration during countermovement jumps (CMJ). Ten basketball players performed CMJ while motion capture and ground reaction force data were recorded and used as inputs to a musculoskeletal model. Contributions and capacities to COM acceleration were quantified with three induced acceleration analyses, which showed that the soleus, gastrocnemii, and vastii muscle groups exhibited the largest potential contribution to COM acceleration. Comparisons among analyses suggested that the soleus and vastii muscle group were operating closest to their maximum capacities.