Analysis of the corrective contribution of strong halo-femoral traction in the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis

Introduction Strong halo-femoral traction has been widely used in the field of severe rigid scoliosis correction. The objective of this study was to analyze the corrective contribution of strong halo-femoral traction in the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis and discuss its meaning. Material and methods A retrospective review was performed for patients with severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis who were treated with halo-femoral traction in our center from December 2008 to December 2015. All cases underwent halo-femoral traction for 2 to 4 weeks before a one-stage posterior operation, and the absolute and relative contribution rates of each orthopedic factor (bending, fulcrum, traction, surgery) were analyzed. Results A total of 38 patients were included (15 males and 23 females), with a mean age of 16.4 ± 3.73 years (10–22 years) and follow-up of 55.05 ± 6.63 months (range 40–68 months). The etiology was congenital in 17 patients, neuromuscular in 14 patients, neurofibromatosis-1 in 3 patients, and Marfan syndrome in 2 patients. Congenital high scapular disease with scoliosis was found in 2 patients. The mean coronal Cobb angle of the major curve was 97.99° ± 11.47° (range 78°–124°), with a mean flexibility of 15.68% ± 6.65%. The absolute contribution rate (ACR) of bending was 27.26% ± 10.16%, the ACR of the fulcrum was 10.91% ± 2.50%, the ACR of traction was 32.32% ± 11.41%, and the ACR of surgery was 29.50% ± 9.70%. A significant difference in correction was noted between the ACRs of traction and the fulcrum (P < 0.05). Discussion Strong halo-femoral traction plays a relatively significant role in the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis while decreasing the risk of operation, and it is a safe and effective method for the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis.

Analysis of the corrective contribution of strong halo-femoral traction in the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis

Introduction: Strong halo-femoral traction has been widely used in the field of severe rigid scoliosis correction. The objective of this study was to analyze the corrective contribution of strong halo-femoral traction in the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis and discuss its meaning.Material and methods: A retrospective review was performed for patients with severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis who were treated with halo-femoral traction in our center from December 2008 to December 2015. All cases underwent halo-femoral traction for 2 to 4 weeks before a one-stage posterior operation, and the absolute and relative contribution rates of each orthopedic factor (bending, fulcrum, traction, surgery) were analyzed.Results: A total of 38 patients were included (15 male and 23 female), with a mean age of 16.4± 3.73 years (10-22 years) and follow-up of 55.05 ± 6.63 mos. (range 40-68 mos.). The etiology was congenital in 17 patients, neuromuscular in 14 patients, neurofibromatosis-1 in 3 patients and Marfan syndrome in 2 patients. Congenital high scapular disease with scoliosis was found in 2 patients. The mean coronal Cobb angle of the major curve was 97.99°±11.47° (range 78°–124°), with a mean flexibility of 15.68% ±6.65%. The absolute contribution rate (ACR) of bending was 27.26% ±10.16%, the ACR of the fulcrum was 10.91% ±2.50%, the ACR of traction was 32.32% ±11.41%, and the ACR of surgery was 29.50% ±9.70%. A significant difference in correction was noted between the ACRs of traction and the fulcrum (P < 0.05).Discussion: Strong halo-femoral traction plays a relatively significant role in the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis while decreasing the risk of operation, and it is a safe and effective method for the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis.

Analysis of the Corrective Contribution of Strong Halo-femoral Traction in the Treatment of Severe Rigid Nonidiopathic Scoliosis

Introduction: Strong halo-femoral traction has been widely used in the field of severe rigid scoliosis correction. The objective of this study was to analyze the corrective contribution of strong halo-femoral traction in the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis and discuss its meaning.Material and methods: A retrospective review was performed for patients with severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis who were treated with halo-femoral traction in our center from December 2008 to December 2015. All cases underwent halo-femoral traction for 2 to 4 weeks before a one-stage posterior operation, and the absolute and relative contribution rates of each orthopedic factor (bending, fulcrum, traction, surgery) were analyzed.Results: A total of 38 patients were included (15 male and 23 female), with a mean age of 16.4± 3.73 years (10-22 years) and follow-up of 55.05 ± 6.63 mos. (range 40-68 mos.). The etiology was congenital in 17 patients, neuromuscular in 14 patients, neurofibromatosis-1 in 3 patients and Marfan syndrome in 2 patients. Congenital high scapular disease with scoliosis was found in 2 patients. The mean coronal Cobb angle of the major curve was 97.99°±11.47° (range 78°–124°), with a mean flexibility of 15.68% ±6.65%. The absolute contribution rate (ACR) of bending was 27.26% ±10.16%, the ACR of the fulcrum was 10.91% ±2.50%, the ACR of traction was 32.32% ±11.41%, and the ACR of surgery was 29.50% ±9.70%. A significant difference in correction was noted between the ACRs of traction and the fulcrum (P < 0.05).Discussion: Strong halo-femoral traction plays a relatively significant role in the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis while decreasing the risk of operation, and it is a safe and effective method for the treatment of severe rigid nonidiopathic scoliosis.

Towards Intelligent Drug Design System: Application of Artificial Dipeptide Receptor Library in QSAR-Oriented Studies

The pharmacophore properties of a new series of potential purinoreceptor (P2X) inhibitors determined using a coupled neural network and the partial least squares method with iterative variable elimination (IVE-PLS) are presented in a ligand-based comparative study of the molecular surface by comparative molecular surface analysis (CoMSA). Moreover, we focused on the interpretation of noticeable variations in the potential selectiveness of interactions of individual inhibitor-receptors due to their physicochemical properties; therefore, the library of artificial dipeptide receptors (ADP) was designed and examined. The resulting library response to individual inhibitors was arranged in the array, preprocessed and transformed by the principal component analysis (PCA) and PLS procedures. A dominant absolute contribution to PC1 of the Glu attached to heptanoic gating acid and Phe bonded to the linker m-phenylenediamine/triazine scaffold was revealed by the PCA. The IVE-PLS procedure indicated the receptor systems with predominant Pro bonded to the linker and Glu, Gln, Cys and Val directly attached to the gating acid. The proposed comprehensive ligand-based and simplified structure-based methodology allows the in-depth study of the performance of peptide receptors against the tested set of compounds.

Technical Note: A diagnostic for ozone contributions of various NO_x emissions in multi-decadal chemistry-climate model simulations

Nitrogen oxide (NOx=NO+NO2) emissions from various sources contribute to the ozone budget. The identification of these contributions is important, e.g. for the assessment of emissions from traffic. The non-linear character of ozone chemistry complicates the online diagnosis during multi-decadal chemistry-climate simulations. A methodology is suggested, which is efficient enough to be incorporated in multi-decadal simulations. Eight types of NOx emissions are included in the model. For each a NOy (=all N components, except N2 and N2O) tracer and an ozone tracer is included in the model, which experience the same emissions and loss processes like the online chemistry fields. To calculate the ozone changes caused by an individual NOx emission, the assumption is made that the NOx relative contributions from various sources are identical to the NOy relative contributions. To evaluate this method each NOx emission has been increased by 5% and a detailed error analysis is given. In the regions of the main impact of individual sources the potential error of the calculated contribution is significantly smaller than the contribution. Moreover, the changes caused by an increase of the emissions of 5% were detected with a higher accuracy than the potential error of the absolute contribution.

Lack of hepatic “interregulation” during inhibition of glycogenolysis in a canine model

It has been proposed that the glycogenolytic and gluconeogenic pathways contributing to endogenous glucose production are interrelated. Thus a change in one source of glucose 6-phosphate might be compensated for by an inverse change in the other pathway. We therefore investigated the effects of 1,4-dideoxy-1,4-imino-d-arabinitol (DAB), a potent glycogen phosphorylase inhibitor, on glucose production in fasted conscious dogs. When dogs were treated acutely with high glucagon, glucose production rose from 1.93 ± 0.14 to 3.07 ± 0.37 mg · kg−1· min−1( P < 0.01). When dogs were treated acutely with DAB in addition to high glucagon infusion, the stimulation of the glycogenolytic rate was completely suppressed. Glucose production rose from 1.85 ± 0.20 to 2.41 ± 0.17 mg · kg−1· min−1( P < 0.05), which was due to the increase in gluconeogenesis from 0.93 ± 0.09 to 1.54 ± 0.08 mg · kg−1· min−1( P < 0.001). In conclusion, infusion of DAB inhibited glycogenolysis; however, the absolute contribution of gluconeogenesis to glucose production was not affected. These results suggest that inhibition of glycogenolysis could be an effective antidiabetic treatment.

Influence of the pericardium on right and left ventricular filling in the dog

We compared the influence of the pericardium on left and right ventricular (LV, RV) filling by measuring LV and RV pressures and segment lengths (SL, LV free wall, and RV inflow and outflow tracts) in six open-chest, pentobarbital sodium-anesthetized dogs before and after pericardiectomy. End-diastolic pressure (EDP) was varied by partial caval occlusion and dextran infusion. At each site the ln EDP-SL relation was fitted by linear regression and characterized by its slope and 1-Torr EDP intercept. The slope and 1-Torr intercept of the LV ln EDP-SL relation changed variably after pericardiectomy, but in each dog a change occurred that shifted this relation downward. In contrast, the RV inflow tract slope invariably decreased significantly after pericardiectomy, whereas its intercept was unchanged in all but one dog. The RV outflow tract results were similar to the inflow tract but less consistent. By the use of the raw EDP-SL data points, we calculated that the absolute contribution of the pericardium to EDP (i.e., the effective pericardial surface pressure) was similar at the three sites. However, as EDP values increased the proportional contribution of the pericardium to right ventricular end-diastolic pressure (RVEDP) increased, whereas that to left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) remained relatively constant. As a result, at the higher EDP values tested, the pericardium was responsible for a larger proportion of RVEDP than LVEDP.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The Components of the Standard and Reverse Müller-Lyer Illusions

The absolute contribution of each type of oblique figure in the standard and reverse Müller-Lyer illusions is determined by placing one oblique figure at different distances from the end of a test line (either horizontal or vertical) and measuring shift in the line's apparent midpoint as a function of proximity of the oblique figure. The absolute effect of both types of figure, apex-in > < or apex-out < > is one of contraction, and superimposed on this, again for both types of figure, is a smaller expansion effect which is phasic and varies with proximity of the figure to the line. The major factor in the reverse illusion appears to be the apex-in > < and not the apex-out < > figure as previously supposed. For both standard and reverse illusions, and again for both types of figures, there is a visual field effect, since contraction is greater when the obliques lie in the right or in the lower hemifield. The fundamental similarities in mode of action of each type of oblique are further demonstrated by showing that geometrical figures in general, regardless of shape or orientation, give rise to similar patterns of absolute contraction with a phasic expansion component superimposed. The Müller-Lyer oblique figures therefore operate as two of many possible examples of a single underlying mechanism, and recent arguments that the Müller-Lyer is really two separate constituent illusions are not supported.