| 1. |
- Aasa, Ulrika, et al.
(författare)
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A descriptive analysis of functional impairments and patho-anatomical findings in eight powerlifters
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. - : Edizioni Minerva Medica. - 0022-4707 .- 1827-1928. ; 60:4, s. 582-593
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) is a common pain problem in powerlifters. There is a lack of evidence to guide powerlifters and health-care professionals in understanding the role of powerlifting in the development of LBP and treatment of injuries in powerlifters. This study aimed to describe functional impairments and patho-anatomical findings in eight powerlifters with and without LBP. METHODS: First, four powerlifters with LBP were recruited. Each powerlifter was then matched with a pain-free lifter (Control) by age, Body Mass Index and competition weight class. They all performed physical performance tests and were examined with magnetic resonance imaging. Four weeks prior to the examination the powerlifters also recorded training load. Powerlifters with LBP were also examined by a physiotherapist in order to define their pain and impairments. RESULTS: The four male powerlifters with LBP had a nociceptive pain associated with non-ideal squatting technique, higher flexibility in their lumbar spine than in their hips and patho-anatomical findings such as degenerated discs (four), spondylolysis (one) and spinal stenosis (one). However, the controls also showed similar functional impairments and patho-anatomical findings. CONCLUSIONS: Powerlifters with and without LBP show similar functional impairments and patho-anatomical findings. However, powerlifters' LBP seems associated with pain during movement and loading of the lumbar spine. The association and causation between specific functional impairments, patho-anatomical findings and LBP in powerlifters has to be further investigated in studies including more participants.
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| 2. |
- Abbara, Aula, et al.
(författare)
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The challenges of tuberculosis control in protracted conflict: The case of Syria
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Journal of Infectious Diseases. - : Elsevier. - 1201-9712 .- 1878-3511. ; 90, s. 53-59
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: Syria's protracted conflict has resulted in ideal conditions for the transmission of tuberculosis (TB) and the cultivation of drug-resistant strains. This paper compares TB control in Syria before and after the conflict using available data, examines the barriers posed by protracted conflict and those specific to Syria, and discusses what measures can be taken to address the control of TB in Syria.Results: Forced mass displacement and systematic violations of humanitarian law have resulted in overcrowding and the destruction of key infrastructure, leading to an increased risk of both drug-sensitive and resistant TB, while restricting the ability to diagnose, trace contacts, treat, and follow-up. Pre-conflict, TB in Syria was officially reported at 22 per 100 000 population; the official figure for 2017 of 19 per 100 000 is likely a vast underestimate given the challenges and barriers to case detection. Limited diagnostics also affect the diagnosis of multidrug- and rifampicin-resistant TB, reported as comprising 8.8% of new diagnoses in 2017.Conclusions: The control of TB in Syria requires a multipronged, tailored, and pragmatic approach to improve timely diagnosis, increase detection, stop transmission, and mitigate the risk of drug resistance. Solutions must also consider vulnerable populations such as imprisoned and besieged communities where the risk of drug resistance is particularly high, and must recognize the limitations of national programming. Strengthening capacity to control TB in Syria with particular attention to these factors will positively impact other parallel conditions; this is key as attention turns to post-conflict reconstruction.
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| 3. |
- Abdellah, Tebani, et al.
(författare)
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Integration of molecular profiles in a longitudinal wellness profiling cohort.
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nature communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 11:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An important aspect of precision medicine is to probe the stability in molecular profiles among healthy individuals over time. Here, we sample a longitudinal wellness cohort with 100 healthy individuals and analyze blood molecular profiles including proteomics, transcriptomics, lipidomics, metabolomics, autoantibodies andimmune cell profiling, complementedwith gut microbiota composition and routine clinical chemistry. Overall, our results show high variation between individuals across different molecular readouts, while the intra-individual baseline variation is low. The analyses show that each individual has a unique and stable plasma protein profile throughout the study period and that many individuals also show distinct profiles with regards to the other omics datasets, with strong underlying connections between the blood proteome and the clinical chemistry parameters. In conclusion, the results support an individual-based definition of health and show that comprehensive omics profiling in a longitudinal manner is a path forward for precision medicine.
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| 4. |
- Abdelsayed, Mena, et al.
(författare)
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Left Ventricular Contraction Duration Is the Most Powerful Predictor of Cardiac Events in LQTS : A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Medicine. - : MDPI. - 2077-0383. ; 9:9
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Long-QT syndrome (LQTS) is primarily an electrical disorder characterized by a prolonged myocardial action potential. The delay in cardiac repolarization leads to electromechanical (EM) abnormalities, which adds a diagnostic value for LQTS. Prolonged left ventricular (LV) contraction was identified as a potential risk for arrhythmia. The aim of this meta-analysis was to assess the best predictor of all EM parameters for cardiac events (CEs) in LQTS patients. Methods: We systematically searched all electronic databases up to March 2020, to select studies that assessed the relationship between echocardiographic indices—contraction duration (CD), mechanical dispersion (MD), QRS onset to peak systolic strain (QAoC), and the EM window (EMW); and electrical indices— corrected QT interval (QTC), QTC dispersion, RR interval in relation to CEs in LQTS. This meta-analysis included a total of 1041 patients and 373 controls recruited from 12 studies. Results: The meta-analysis showed that LQTS patients had electrical and mechanical abnormalities as compared to controls—QTC, WMD 72.8; QTC dispersion, WMD 31.7; RR interval, WMD 91.5; CD, WMD 49.2; MD, WMD 15.9; QAoC, WMD 27.8; and EMW, WMD −62.4. These mechanical abnormalities were more profound in symptomatic compared to asymptomatic patients in whom disturbances were already manifest, compared to controls. A CD ≥430 ms had a summary sensitivity (SS) of 71%, specificity of 84%, and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) >19.5 in predicting CEs. EMW and QTC had a lower accuracy. Conclusions: LQTS is associated with pronounced EM abnormalities, particularly prolonged LV myocardial CD, which is profound in symptomatic patients. These findings highlight the significant role of EM indices like CD in managing LQTS patients.
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| 5. |
- Abdulla, Maysaa, et al.
(författare)
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Cell-of-origin determined by both gene expression profiling and immunohistochemistry is the strongest predictor of survival in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
- 2020
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Ingår i: American Journal of Hematology. - : Wiley. - 0361-8609 .- 1096-8652. ; 95:1, s. 57-67
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The tumor cells in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) are considered to originate from germinal center derived B-cells (GCB) or activated B-cells (ABC). Gene expression profiling (GEP) is preferably used to determine the cell of origin (COO). However, GEP is not widely applied in clinical practice and consequently, several algorithms based on immunohistochemistry (IHC) have been developed. Our aim was to evaluate the concordance of COO assignment between the Lymph2Cx GEP assay and the IHC-based Hans algorithm, to decide which model is the best survival predictor. Both GEP and IHC were performed in 359 homogenously treated Swedish and Danish DLBCL patients, in a retrospective multicenter cohort. The overall concordance between GEP and IHC algorithm was 72%; GEP classified 85% of cases assigned as GCB by IHC, as GCB, while 58% classified as non-GCB by IHC, were categorized as ABC by GEP. There were significant survival differences (overall survival and progression-free survival) if cases were classified by GEP, whereas if cases were categorized by IHC only progression-free survival differed significantly. Importantly, patients assigned as non-GCB/ABC both by IHC and GEP had the worst prognosis, which was also significant in multivariate analyses. Double expression of MYC and BCL2 was more common in ABC cases and was associated with a dismal outcome. In conclusion, to determine COO both by IHC and GEP is the strongest outcome predictor to identify DLBCL patients with the worst outcome.
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| 6. |
- Abdullahi, Mohamed Farah, et al.
(författare)
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Factors contributing to the uptake of childhood vaccination in Galkayo District, Puntland, Somalia
- 2020
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1654-9716 .- 1654-9880. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: As in many Sub-Saharan African countries, the health system in Somalia is not operating at the capacity needed to lift childhood vaccination coverage to ninety percent or above, as recommended by United Nations Children's Fund. Current national estimates of coverage for the six major vaccine preventable childhood diseases range from thirty to sixty percent. Infectious disease outbreaks continue to pose significant challenges for the country's health authorities.OBJECTIVE: This important qualitative study, conducted in Galkayo District, Somalia, investigates limiting factors associated with childhood vaccination uptake from the perspective of both communities and health care workers.METHODS: Qualitative information was collected through six focus group discussions with parents (n = 48) and five one-to-one interviews with health workers (n = 15) between March and May 2017, in three settings in the Galkayo District - Galkayo city, Bayra and Bacadwayn.RESULTS: From a health system perspective, the factors are: awareness raising, hard to reach areas, negative attitudes and perceived knowledge of health workers, inadequate supplies and infrastructure, and missed vaccination opportunities. From the perspective of individuals and communities the factors are: low trust in vaccines, misinterpretation of religious beliefs, vaccine refusals, Somalia's patriarchal system and rumours and misinformation. Parents mostly received immunization information from social mobilizers and health facilities. Fathers, who are typically family decision-makers, were poorly informed. The findings highlight the need for in-service training to enable health workers to improve communication with parents, particularly fathers, peripheral communities and local religious leaders.CONCLUSIONS: Enhancing knowledge and awareness of vaccination among parents is crucial. Fathers' involvement is lacking. This may be boosted by highlighting fathers' obligation to protect their children's health through vaccination. It is also important that men engage with the wider community in decision-making and advance towards the global vaccination targets.
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| 7. |
- Abma, Tineke, et al.
(författare)
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Enriching evaluation practice through care ethics
- 2020
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Ingår i: Evaluation. - : Sage Publications. - 1356-3890 .- 1461-7153. ; 26:2, s. 131-146
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recently, several authors have called for a critical assessment of the normative dimensions of evaluation practice. This article responds to this call by demonstrating how evaluation practice can be enriched through deliberate engagement with care ethics. Care ethics has a relational and practice view of morality and places caring relationships and responsibilities at the forefront of our being in the world. We will demonstrate how care ethics, in particular Joan Tronto’s moral-political theory of democratic caring, can help evaluators to reshape our way of working by placing caring and relationality at the centre of our evaluative work. Care ethics as a normative orientation for evaluation stretches beyond professional codes of conduct, and rule- or principled-based behaviour. It is part of everything we do or not do, how we interact with others, and what kinds of relationships we forge in our practice. This is illustrated with two examples: a democratic evaluation of a programme for refugee children in Sweden; and a responsive evaluation of a programme for neighbours of people with an intellectual disability in The Netherlands. Both examples show that a caring ethos offers a promising pathway to address the larger political, public issues of our times through the interrogation of un-caring practices. We conclude a caring ethos can help evaluators to strengthen a caring society that builds on people’s deeply felt need to care, to relate, and to connect within and across communities.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Abrahamsson, Helene, et al.
(författare)
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Treatment of temporomandibular joint luxation : a systematic literature review
- 2020
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Ingår i: Clinical Oral Investigations. - : Springer Berlin/Heidelberg. - 1432-6981 .- 1436-3771. ; 24:1, s. 61-70
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of surgical and nonsurgical treatment of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) luxation.Materials and methods: This systematic literature review searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases to identify randomized controlled trials on TMJ luxation treatment published between the inception of each database and 26 March 2018.Results: Two authors assessed 113 unique abstracts according to the inclusion criteria and read nine articles in full text. Eight articles comprising 338 patients met the inclusion criteria, but none of these evaluated surgical techniques. Three studies including 185 patients concerned acute treatment with manual reduction of luxation while five studies including 153 patients evaluated minimally invasive methods with injection of autologous blood or dextrose prolotherapy for recurrent TMJ luxation. These studies reported that mouth opening after treatment was reduced and that independent of type of injection, recurrences of TMJ luxation were rare in most patients.Conclusions: In the absence of randomized studies on surgical techniques, autologous blood injection in the superior joint space and pericapsular tissues with intermaxillary fixation seems to be the treatment for recurrent TMJ luxation that at present has the best scientific support. Well-designed studies on surgical techniques with sufficient numbers of patients, long-term follow-ups, and patient experience assessment are needed for selection of the optimal surgical treatment methods.Clinical relevance: Autologous blood injection combined with intermaxillary fixation can be recommended for patients with recurrence of TMJ luxation.
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