Project description:BackgroundThe seesaw test consists of flexion and extension of the thumb metacarpal on the trapezium, with continuous axial pressure to keep the metacarpal base reduced in the carpometacarpal (CMC) joint. We aim to evaluate this maneuver compared with the grind test.MethodsWe prospectively enrolled 80 participants from March 2017 to March 2018 at a single institution, excluding those who had previous thumb surgery or pathology. Each participant underwent both seesaw and grind tests by 2 independent examiners. We included 24 patients with a mean age of 73 years in the CMC osteoarthritis group (Eaton stages 2-4) and 44 patients with a mean age of 66 years in the control group (Eaton stages 0 and 1). We calculated the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and multirater κ measure.ResultsThe seesaw test had a higher sensitivity than the grind test (42%-71% vs 13%-17%), but a lower specificity (82%-86% vs 91%-98%). The PPV was more consistent between examiners for the seesaw test (63%-68% vs 42%-80%), and the NPV was higher (73%-84% vs 66%-68%). There was a slight agreement between the attending surgeon and the fellow performing the grind test (κ = 0.08) and a moderate agreement between the attending surgeon and the fellow performing the seesaw test (κ = 0.59).ConclusionsThe seesaw test is superior to the grind test, with a much higher sensitivity, slightly lower specificity, more consistent PPV, and slightly higher NPV. Therefore, the seesaw test could be a valuable addition or even replacement for the grind test, and we recommend considering it in daily practice.
Project description:The Spurling test, although a highly specific provocative test of the cervical spine in cervical radiculopathy (CR), has low to moderate sensitivity. Thus, we introduced the neck tornado test (NTT) to examine the neck and the cervical spine in CR.The aim of this study was to introduce a new provocative test, the NTT, and compare the diagnostic accuracy with a widely accepted provocative test, the Spurling test.Retrospective study.Medical records of 135 subjects with neck pain (CR, n = 67; without CR, n = 68) who had undergone cervical spine magnetic resonance imaging and been referred to the pain clinic between September 2014 and August 2015 were reviewed. Both the Spurling test and NTT were performed in all patients by expert examiners. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were compared for both the Spurling test and the NTT.The sensitivity of the Spurling test and the NTT was 55.22% and 85.07% (P < 0.0001); specificity, 98.53% and 86.76% (P = 0.0026); accuracy, 77.04% and 85.93% (P = 0.0423), respectively.The NTT is more sensitive with superior diagnostic accuracy for CR diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging than the Spurling test.
Project description:An important aspect of the perceived quality of vocal music is the degree to which the vocalist sings in tune. Although most listeners seem sensitive to vocal mistuning, little is known about the development of this perceptual ability or how it differs between listeners. Motivated by a lack of suitable preexisting measures, we introduce in this article an adaptive and ecologically valid test of mistuning perception ability. The stimulus material consisted of short excerpts (6 to 12 s in length) from pop music performances (obtained from MedleyDB; Bittner et al., 2014) for which the vocal track was pitch-shifted relative to the instrumental tracks. In a first experiment, 333 listeners were tested on a two-alternative forced choice task that tested discrimination between a pitch-shifted and an unaltered version of the same audio clip. Explanatory item response modeling was then used to calibrate an adaptive version of the test. A subsequent validation experiment applied this adaptive test to 66 participants with a broad range of musical expertise, producing evidence of the test's reliability, convergent validity, and divergent validity. The test is ready to be deployed as an experimental tool and should make an important contribution to our understanding of the human ability to judge mistuning.
Project description:Cartilage metabolism-both the synthesis and breakdown of cartilage constituents and architecture-is influenced by its mechanical loading. Therefore, physical activity is often recommended to maintain cartilage health and to treat or slow the progression of osteoarthritis, a debilitating joint disease causing cartilage degeneration. However, the appropriate exercise frequency, intensity, and duration cannot be prescribed because direct in vivo evaluation of cartilage following exercise has not yet been performed. To address this gap in knowledge, we developed a cartilage stress test to measure the in vivo strain response of healthy human subjects' tibial cartilage to walking exercise. We varied both walk duration and speed in a dose-dependent manner to quantify how these variables affect cartilage strain. We found a nonlinear relationship between walk duration and in vivo compressive strain, with compressive strain initially increasing with increasing duration, then leveling off with longer durations. This work provides innovative measurements of cartilage creep behavior (which has been well-documented in vitro but not in vivo) during walking. This study showed that compressive strain increased with increasing walking speed for the speeds tested in this study (0.9-2.0 m/s). Furthermore, our data provide novel measurements of the in vivo strain response of tibial cartilage to various doses of walking as a mechanical stimulus, with maximal strains of 5.0% observed after 60 minutes of walking. These data describe physiological benchmarks for healthy articular cartilage behavior during walking and provide a much-needed baseline for studies investigating the effect of exercise on cartilage health.
Project description:We introduce a new Dutch receptive vocabulary test, the Dutch auditory & image vocabulary test (DAIVT). The test is multiple choice and assesses vocabulary knowledge for spoken words. The measure has an online (available at https://tpsurvey.ugent.be/limesurvey315/index.php/923234?lang=nl) format, has free access, and allows easy data collection. The test was developed with the intent to enable testing for research purposes with university students. This paper describes the test construction. We cover three phases: 1) collecting stimulus materials and developing the test's first version, 2) an exploratory item-analysis on the first draft (n = 93), and 3) validating the test (both the second and the final version) by comparing it to two existing tests (n = 270, n = 157). The results indicate that the test is reliable and correlates well with existing Dutch receptive vocabulary tests (convergent validity). The final version of the DAIVT comprises 90 test items and 1 practice item. It can be used freely for research purposes.
Project description:IntroductionIncreased adrenergic tone might be an additional trigger of orthostatic stress of vasovagal syncope (VVS). Exercise before standing might provide increased sensitivity compared to standing using a sublingual nitroglycerines protocol during tilt table testing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of treadmill testing before standing with nitroglycerin administration.Methods and resultsA total of 36 patients with syncope or presyncope were enrolled for the test. VVS was confirmed in 29 patients according to the Calgary Score (≥ -2), including 20 patients who were likely to have typical (classical) VVS. All 36 subjects were subjected to a novel provocation test consisting of treadmill test using the Bruce protocol followed by standing with administration of 300 μg sublingual nitroglycerin. Consequently, syncope or presyncope occurred in 22 patients of the 36 patients. The sensitivity and a specificity of the test for Calgary score based VVS was 82.7% and 85.75%, respectively. Reproducibility rate for typical VVS was 90% (18 of 20). In all symptomatic patients, systolic blood pressure dropped to < 90 mmHg and symptom occurred a mean of 6.7 ± 2.3 minutes after the nitroglycerine administration. No patient required anticholinergics injection to restore vital signs.ConclusionsTreadmill test with administration of sublingual nitroglycerines might be safely used to reproduce syncope in patients with VVS. More clinical experience and confirmation are needed to validate this protocol.
Project description:Biofilm formation by the environmental and clinical contaminant Mycobacterium fortuitum causes economic losses and serious threat to human health, as a consequence of its increasing contribution to nosocomial infections. There are no reports that elucidate physiological adaptations taking place during its planktonic to biofilm transition. The present study was hence carried out considering the global proteome of the mycobacterium. This is the first description of a global proteomic investigation into M. fortuitum biofilm. Scrutiny of biological functions in the two states provided insights into the phenotypic switch, and fundamental pathways associated with M. fortuitum pathobiology.
Project description:aCGH data was used in Paradigm analysis for exploration of networks affected by copy number and gene expression changes based on mutation spectra of recurrently mutated genes in breast cancer.