Concussion Subtyping in Patients With Persistent Post-Concussive Symptoms Using a New Concussion Clinical Profile Screen Tool (CP Screen)

ObjectiveTo identify the prevalence of subtypes in Persistent Post Concussion Symptoms (PPCS) and investigate their potential relationships.BackgroundThe CP-Screen is designed to evaluate 5 clinical profiles and 2 modifiers that are predominant within concussion patients. The CP screen includes 29 items that are expressed as weighted outcome scores for each of the 7 concussion subtypes.Design/MethodsThis was a retrospective-chart review of 1,136 visits for 362 patients with PPCS at a concussion center. Age range was 12–81 and average age was 32, 65.7% were female and 34.3% male. 360 visits were in the 12–21 pediatric age range. Each patient completed an electronic CP-Screen prior to each visit, which was uploaded to the EHR. All patients were seen between October 2020 and April 2021.ResultsOverall, the most common subtypes were cognitive (34.0%), neck (17.8%), and mood (16.8%). The highest overall observed subtype average CP symptom score was mood (32.8/89) and the lowest was visual (23.6/89). For pediatric the most common phenotypes were cognitive (36.7%), mood (17.9%), and visual (15.4%). The highest observed pediatric average CP symptom score was mood (30.8/89) and the lowest was sleep (20.1/89). For those with cognitive primary profile, neck and ocular were the most common secondary and tertiary profiles in both groups. Females presented with cognitive, mood, neck as their most common profiles compared to cognitive, neck, ocular in males in both groups. Neck, mood, and visual primary profiles all presented with cognitive fatigue as their secondary profile.ConclusionsCP screen was overall a useful tool in helping identify clinical profiles in PPCS. Cognitive fatigue was a predominant profile in PPCS across all ages and sexes. Those with predominant mood profiles presented with the highest symptom scores. Mood profile was more predominant in females. Cognitive primary profile was found to be most linked to cervical, mood, and visual profiles.

Parental Perception of Childhood Anaemia and Efficiency of Instrument Assisted Pallor Detection among Mothers in Southeast Nigeria: A Field Validation Study

Background. Control of anemia can be achieved with early detection of pallor by parents at home. However, most parents lack the capacity to recognize pallor; thus most cases of anaemia are detected during hospital visit due to other symptoms. This study aimed to evaluate parental ability to detect pallor when aided with the anaemia screening tool. Methods. In the study information on the symptoms of illness and parental knowledge on anaemia. Their ability to detect anaemia aided with the Home-Base anaemia-screen tool (HB-Anae) was compared to the healthcare providers’ assessment of pallor. The haemoglobin estimation with the Hb-301 haemoglobinometer was used as the gold standard. Results. None of the children in their previous illnesses had paleness as a complaint. Few (20.8%) parents knew what anaemia meant. Only 18.3% knew sites on the body where pallor can be detected. Many (55.1%; 304/552) surveyed children were anaemic (Hb<11g/dl) based on HB 301. Majority (88.8%; 270/304) of the parents aided with the HB-Anae were able to detect pallor on the children who were anaemic compared to 95.1% (289/304) detected by healthcare workers unaided, and the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.25). Conclusion. There was poor knowledge on anaemia among parents. The ability of parents to detect anaemia could be improved with the simple HB-Anae screen tool.

A triethylene glycol dimethacrylate- free dental composite for reduced water-sorption and shrinkage

A number of new liquid urethane-based oligomers were synthesized, characterized and used to formulate the dental composites. Compressive strength and viscosity were used as a screen tool to evaluate the formed composites. Commercial available bisphenol A glycidyl methacrylate and urethane dimethacrylate-based systems were used as controls. Degree of conversion, shrinkage, water-sorption, solubility, flexural strength and diametrial tensile strength were evaluated. The results show that using mixed acrylate/methacrylate or methacrylates with different length to derivatize diisocyanates could be a good strategy to synthesize urethane-based oligomers in a liquid state. The developed triethylene glycol dimethacrylate-free urethane-based composites showed significantly reduced water sorption and solubility, decreased shrinkage and enhanced mechanical strength as compared to commercial resin-based ones.