Resources: Internet Resources for the Independent Medical Evaluator – 2007

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-7
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Brigham ◽  
Jenny Walker

Abstract Rating patients with head trauma and multiple neurological injuries can be challenging. The AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), Fifth Edition, Section 13.2, Criteria for Rating Impairment Due to Central Nervous System Disorders, outlines the process to rate impairment due to head trauma. This article summarizes the case of a 57-year-old male security guard who presents with headache, decreased sensation on the left cheek, loss of sense of smell, and problems with memory, among other symptoms. One year ago the patient was assaulted while on the job: his Glasgow Coma Score was 14; he had left periorbital ecchymosis and a 2.5 cm laceration over the left eyelid; a small right temporoparietal acute subdural hematoma; left inferior and medial orbital wall fractures; and, four hours after admission to the hospital, he experienced a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. This patient's impairment must include the following components: single seizure, orbital fracture, infraorbital neuropathy, anosmia, headache, and memory complaints. The article shows how the ratable impairments are combined using the Combining Impairment Ratings section. Because this patient has not experienced any seizures since the first occurrence, according to the AMA Guides he is not experiencing the “episodic neurological impairments” required for disability. Complex cases such as the one presented here highlight the need to use the criteria and estimates that are located in several sections of the AMA Guides.

VASA ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asciutto ◽  
Lindblad

Background: The aim of this study is to report the short-term results of catheter-directed foam sclerotherapy (CDFS) in the treatment of axial saphenous vein incompetence. Patients and methods: Data of all patients undergoing CDFS for symptomatic primary incompetence of the great or small saphenous vein were prospectively collected. Treatment results in terms of occlusion rate and patients’ grade of satisfaction were analysed. All successfully treated patients underwent clinical and duplex follow-up examinations one year postoperatively. Results: Between September 2006 and September 2010, 357 limbs (337 patients) were treated with CDFS at our institution. Based on the CEAP classification, 64 were allocated to clinical class C3 , 128 to class C4, 102 to class C5 and 63 to class C6. Of the 188 patients who completed the one year follow up examination, 67 % had a complete and 14 % a near complete obliteration of the treated vessel. An ulcer-healing rate of 54 % was detected. 92 % of the patients were satisfied with the results of treatment. We registered six cases of thrombophlebitis and two cases of venous thromboembolism, all requiring treatment. Conclusions: The short-term results of CDFS in patients with axial vein incompetence are acceptable in terms of occlusion and complications rates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-302
Author(s):  
Damian Mowczan ◽  

The main objective of this paper was to estimate and analyse transition-probability matrices for all 16 of Poland’s NUTS-2 level regions (voivodeship level). The analysis is conducted in terms of the transitions among six expenditure classes (per capita and per equivalent unit), focusing on poverty classes. The period of analysis was two years: 2015 and 2016. The basic aim was to identify both those regions in which the probability of staying in poverty was the highest and the general level of mobility among expenditure classes. The study uses a two-year panel sub-sample of unidentified unit data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO), specifically the data concerning household budget surveys. To account for differences in household size and demographic structure, the study used expenditures per capita and expenditures per equivalent unit simultaneously. To estimate the elements of the transition matrices, a classic maximum-likelihood estimator was used. The analysis used Shorrocks’ and Bartholomew’s mobility indices to assess the general mobility level and the Gini index to assess the inequality level. The results show that the one-year probability of staying in the same poverty class varies among regions and is lower for expenditures per equivalent units. The highest probabilities were identified in Podkarpackie (expenditures per capita) and Opolskie (expenditures per equivalent unit), and the lowest probabilities in Kujawsko-Pomorskie (expenditures per capita) and Małopolskie (expenditures per equivalent unit). The highest level of general mobility was noted in Małopolskie, for both categories of expenditures.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter P. Smith

The United States is in a bind. On the one hand, we need millions of additional citizens with at least one year of successful post-secondary experience to adapt to the knowledge economy. Both the Gates and Lumina Foundations, and our President, have championed this goal in different ways. On the other hand, we have a post-secondary system that is trapped between rising costs and stagnant effectiveness, seemingly unable to respond effectively to this challenge. This paper analyzes several aspects of this problem, describes changes in the society that create the basis for solutions, and offers several examples from Kaplan University of emerging practice that suggests what good practice might look like in a world where quality-assured mass higher education is the norm.


2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
Maksim Rykov ◽  
Ivan Turabov ◽  
Yuriy Punanov ◽  
Svetlana Safonova

Background: St. Petersburg is a city of federal importance with a large number of primary patients, identified annually. Objective: analysis of the main indicators characterizing medical care for children with cancer in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. Methods: The operative reports for 2013-2017 of the Health Committee of the Government of St. Petersburg and the Health Committee of the Leningrad Region were analyzed. Results. In 2013-2017 in the Russian Federation, 18 090 primary patients were identified, 927 (5.1%) of them in the analyzed subjects: in St. Petersburg - 697 (75,2%), in the Leningrad Region - 230 (24,8%). For 5 years, the number of primary patients increased in St. Petersburg - by 36%, in the Leningrad Region - by 2,5%. The incidence increased in St. Petersburg by 18,1% (from 14,9 in 2013 to 17,6 in 2017 per 100 000 of children aged 0-17). The incidence in the Leningrad Region fell by 4.9% (from 14.4 in 2013 to 13.7 in 2017). Mortality in 2016-2017 in St. Petersburg increased by 50% (from 2 to 3), in the Leningrad Region - by 12,5% (from 2,4 to 2,7). The one-year mortality rate in St. Petersburg increased by 3,9% (from 2,5 to 6,4%). In the Leningrad Region, the one-year mortality rate decreased from 6,5% in 2016 to 0 in 2017. The number of pediatric oncological beds did not change in St. Petersburg (0,9 per 10,000 children aged 0-17 years) and the Leningrad Region (0). In St. Petersburg patients were not identified actively in 2016-2017; in the Leningrad Region their percentage decreased from 8,7 to 0. The number of oncologists increased in St. Petersburg from 0,09 to 0.12 (+33,3%), in the Leningrad Region - from 0 to 0,03. Conclusion: Morbidity in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region is significantly different, which indicates obvious defects in statistical data. Patients were not identified during routine preventive examinations which indicate a low oncologic alertness of district pediatric physicians. Delivery of medical care for children with cancer and the statistical data accumulation procedures should be improved.


2020 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 12002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Issam Boukhanef ◽  
Anna Khadzhidi ◽  
Lyudmila Kravchenko ◽  
Zeroual Ayoub ◽  
Kastali Abdennour

In Algeria, the problems of erosion and sediment transport are critical, since they have the most dramatic consequences of the degradation of agricultural soils on the one hand and the siltation of the dam on the other .The sediment transport in the Algerian basins is very important especially during the periods of floods, It is in this sense that this study, which consists of estimating the sediment transport in suspension and determining the models of relation linking the liquid discharge and the sediment discharge in order to estimate the solid transport in the absence of suspended sediments concentration data at the Sidi Akkacha station at the outlet of the basin of Oued Allala which is subject to a high water erosion, it degrades from one year to the other under the effect of this phenomenon especially during the floods which drain high amounts of fine particles exceeding in general, the concentration of 150 g/l, the results obtained from the application of the models are very encouraging since the correlation between liquid and solid discharge exceeds 80 %.


1989 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-244
Author(s):  
P. Lemoine

SummaryIt is difficult to undertake field studies with non marketed psychotropic drugs because of two apparently contradictory conditions : on the one hand, the methodology has to be rigorously controlled, and on the other hand, such studies have to be carried out in their future environment by general practitioners (GPs). Bearing in mind the lack of training and experience regarding this kind of approach, the author adopted a discussion group method according to the techniques developed by M. Balint. The study group comprised five GPs, a clinical pharmacology expert and a doctor from the pharmaceutical laboratory which had developed the test drug. These persons met on a monthly basis over a one year period. In the present paper, the author indicates the benefits of such a methodology, based on six years’ experience and several trials, with special emphasis placed on the pedagogical aspects.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minhui Amy Chan ◽  
Farah Ibrahim ◽  
Arjunan Kumaran ◽  
Kailing Yong ◽  
Anita Sook Yee Chan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background To describe the inter-ethnic variation in medial orbital wall anatomy between Chinese, Malay, Indian and Caucasian subjects. Methods Single-centre, retrospective, Computed Tomography (CT)-based observational study. 20 subjects of each ethnicity, were matched for gender and laterality. We excluded subjects younger than 16 years and those with orbital pathology. OsiriX version 8.5.1 (Pixmeo., Switzerland) and DICOM image viewing software CARESTREAM Vue PACS (Carestream Health Inc., USA) were used to measure the ethmoidal sinus length, width and volume, medial orbital wall and floor angle and the relative position of the posterior ethmoid sinus to the posterior maxillary wall. Statistical analyses were performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25.0 (IBM, USA). Results There were 12 males (60 %) in each group, with no significant difference in age (p = 0.334–0.994). The mean ethmoid sinus length in Chinese, Malay, Indian and Caucasian subjects, using the Chinese as reference, were 37.2, 36.9, 38.0 and 37.4mm, the mean width was 11.6, 10.5, 11.4 and 10.0mm (p = 0.020) and the mean ethmoid sinus volume were 3362, 3652, 3349 and 3898mm3 respectively. The mean medial orbital wall and floor angle was 135.0, 131.4, 131.0 and 136.8 degrees and the mean relative position of posterior ethmoid sinus to posterior maxillary wall were − 2.0, -0.2, -1.5 and 1.6mm (p = 0.003) respectively. Conclusions No inter-ethnic variation was found in decompressible ethmoid sinus volume. Caucasians had their posterior maxillary sinus wall anterior to their posterior ethmoidal walls unlike the Chinese, Malay and Indians. Awareness of ethnic variation is essential for safe orbital decompression.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 478
Author(s):  
Ching Chang ◽  
Chien-Hao Huang ◽  
Hsiao-Jung Tseng ◽  
Fang-Chen Yang ◽  
Rong-Nan Chien

Background: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE), a neuropsychiatric complication of decompensated cirrhosis, is associated with high mortality and high risk of recurrence. Rifaximin add-on to lactulose for 3 to 6 months is recommended for the prevention of recurrent episodes of HE after the second episode. However, whether the combination for more than 6 months is superior to lactulose alone in the maintenance of HE remission is less evident. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the one-year efficacy of rifaximin add-on to lactulose for the maintenance of HE remission in Taiwan. Methods: We conducted a real-world single-center retrospective cohort study to compare the long-term efficacy of rifaximin add-on to lactulose (group R + L) versus lactulose alone (group L, control group). Furthermore, the treatment efficacy before and after rifaximin add-on to lactulose was also analyzed. The primary endpoint of our study was time to first HE recurrence (Conn score ≥ 2). All patients were followed up every three months until death, and censored at one year if still alive. Results and Conclusions: 12 patients were enrolled in group R + L. Another 31 patients were stratified into group L. Sex, comorbidity, ammonia level, and ascites grade were matched while age, HE grade, and model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score were adjusted in the multivariable logistic regression model. Compared with group L, significant improvement in the maintenance of HE remission and decreased episodes and days of HE-related hospitalizations were demonstrated in group R + L. The serum ammonia levels were significantly lower at the 3rd and 6th month in group 1. Concerning changes before and after rifaximin add-on in group R + L, mini-mental status examination (MMSE), episodes of hospitalization, and variceal bleeding also improved at 6 and 12 months. Days of hospitalization, serum ammonia levels also improved at 6th month. Except for concern over price, no patients discontinued rifaximin due to adverse events or complications. The above results provide evidence for the one-year use of rifaximin add-on to lactulose in reducing HE recurrence and HE-related hospitalization for patients with decompensated cirrhosis.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document