Corticomuscular Coherence Analysis on Hand Movement Distinction for Active Rehabilitation.
Corticomuscular Coherence Analysis on Hand Movement Distinction for Active Rehabilitation.
Comput Math Methods Med. 2013; 2013: 908591
Lou X, Xiao S, Qi Y, Hu X, Wang Y, Zheng X
Active rehabilitation involves patient’s voluntary thoughts as the control signals of restore device to assist stroke rehabilitation. Although restoration of hand opening stands importantly in patient’s daily life, it is difficult to distinguish the voluntary finger extension from thumb adduction and finger flexion using stroke patients’ electroencephalography (EMG) on single muscle activity. We propose to implement corticomuscular coherence analysis on electroencephalography (EEG) and EMG signals on Extensor Digitorum to extract their intention involved in hand opening. EEG and EMG signals of 8 subjects are simultaneously collected when executing 4 hand movement tasks (finger extension, thumb adduction, finger flexion, and rest). We explore the spatial and temporal distribution of the coherence and observe statistically significant corticomuscular coherence appearing at left motor cortical area and different patterns within beta frequency range for 4 movement tasks. Linear discriminate analysis is applied on the coherence pattern to distinguish finger extension from thumb adduction, finger flexion, and rest. The classification results are greater than those by EEG only. The results indicate the possibility to detect voluntary hand opening based on coherence analysis between single muscle EMG signal and single EEG channel located in motor cortical area, which potentially helps active hand rehabilitation for stroke patients. HubMed – rehab
Diagnostic performance of 64-row coronary CT angiography in detecting significant stenosis as compared with conventional invasive coronary angiography.
ARYA Atheroscler. 2013 Mar; 9(2): 157-163
Sajjadieh A, Hekmatnia A, Keivani M, Asoodeh A, Pourmoghaddas M, Sanei H
The aim of the present study is to evaluate the accuracy of 64-multidetector-row computed tomography angiography (CTA) in comparison to conventional invasive angiography (CIA) in the diagnosis of significant stenosis (? 50%) of coronary artery tree.Assessment of CTA in the detection of coronary artery disease (CAD) was performed in patients referred because of symptoms or stress studies suggestive of ischemia. For this purpose, among more than 1000 cases of coronary CTA in a 20 months period a study population of 54 patients suspected to have significant stenosis of the coronary artery tree was investigated. The CIA procedure was performed in these patients one month after CTA. The accuracy of CTA in detecting significant stenosis was compared to CIA.For vessel based analysis of 179 coronary vessels, CTA had a sensitivity of 96%, specificity of 87.5%, positive predictive value of 90.5%, and negative predictive value of 94.6%. For patient-base analysis, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of CTA were 97.9%, 28.6%, 66.6%, and 90.2%, respectively.The findings of this study reveal that CT angiography with 64-slice scanner could be considered as a suitable technique for rapid triage of patients presenting to hospitals with chest pain. High values of sensitivity and PPV reveal the good performance of CTA in detecting CAD. HubMed – rehab
Home-based vs supervised rehabilitation programs following knee surgery: a systematic review.
Br Med Bull. 2013 May 19;
Papalia R, Vasta S, Tecame A, D’Adamio S, Maffulli N, Denaro V
IntroductionFollowing knee surgery, rehabilitation can dramatically affect the postoperative course and the final outcomes of the procedure. We systematically reviewed the current literature comparing clinical outcomes of home-based and outpatient supervised rehabilitation protocols following knee surgery.Sources of dataWe searched Medline, CINAHL, Embase, Google Scholar, The Cochrane Library and SPORTDiscus. The reference lists of the previously selected articles were then examined by hand. Only studies comparing clinical outcomes of patients who had undergone knee surgery followed by different rehabilitation programs were selected. Then the methodological quality of each article was evaluated using the Coleman methodology score (CMS), a 10-criterion scoring list assessing the methodological quality of the selected studies.Areas of agreementEighteen studies were evaluated in the present review. Three were retrospective studies. The remaining 15 studies were prospective randomized clinical trials. The supervised and home-based protocols did not show an overall significant difference in the outcomes achieved within the studies reviewed. The mean CMS was 77.2.Areas of controversyThe heterogeneity of the rehabilitation protocols used in the studies reviewed makes it difficult to draw definite conclusion on the subject.Growing pointsSupervision and location does not seem to directly determine the final outcomes. Numerous variables, including comorbidities and motivation, could influence the results and deserve to be accounted for in future investigations.ResearchBetter designed studies are needed to show a clear superiority of one rehabilitation approach over another and its applicability to the various surgical procedures involving the knee. HubMed – rehab
Ultrastructural study of hippocampal cortex neurons in an experimental model of valproate encephalopathy.
Folia Histochem Cytobiol. 2013; 51(1): 31-37
Sendrowski K, Sobaniec W, Sobaniec P, E Sobaniec-Lotowska M
Valproate (VPA) is a widely used antiepileptic drug. A serious neurological-outcome defined as valproate encephalopathy (VE) may rarely occur during VPA therapy. Structural abnormalities within neurons are postulated as one of the reasons for VE. The aim of this study was to assess the ultrastructure of neurons in the hippocampal cortex during the course of chronic application of VPA to rats. VPA was chronically administered to rats, intragastrically, once daily at a dose of 200 mg/kg b.w. for 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. The samples of hippocampal cortex, after routine laboratory preparation, were examined by electron microscopy. The drug induced pronounced ultrastructural changes in the population of pyramidal neurons within the hippocampal cortex after 9 and 12 months of VPA administration. The most expressed abnormalities were observed within the mitochondria and manifested by fragmentation of crests and almost complete disappearance of intramitochondrial granules. Mitochondria of numerous neurons resembled large vacuolar structures. Widening, shortening and irregular distribution of rough endoplasmic reticulum was also found. A characteristic feature of damaged neurocytes in the last two phases of the experiment was the disintegration of nuclear chromatin and the presence of numerous lipofuscin deposits within hyaloplasm. These cells assumed the look of “dark neurons” and presented the ultrastructural features of apoptosis and necrosis. Our results indicate that long-term VPA administration to rats leads to aponecrosis of hippocampal neurons. (Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2013, Vol. 51, No. 1, 31-37). HubMed – rehab