Arthroscopic capsulolabroplasty for posteroinferior multidirectional instability of the shoulder

BACKGROUND: Arthroscopic treatment of posteroinferior multidirectional instability of the shoulder is not well documented. PURPOSE: To evaluate pathologic lesions of posteroinferior multidirectional instability and the results of arthroscopic capsulolabroplasty. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective nonrandomized clinical trial. METHODS: Thirty-one patients with posteroinferior multidirectional instability were prospectively evaluated after arthroscopic capsulolabroplasty (mean follow-up, 51 months). Labral lesion and height were measured in the MRI arthrogram and arthroscopic examination. RESULTS: All patients had a labral lesion and variable capsular stretching in the posteroinferior aspect. There were 11 type I labral lesions (incomplete detachment), 12 type II (the Kim's lesion: incomplete and concealed avulsion), 6 type III (chondrolabral erosion), and 2 type IV (flap tear). All patients with type II and III lesions had chondrolabral retroversion, with lost labral height in the MRI arthrogram and arthroscopic examination. Twenty-one patients had an excellent Rowe score, nine had good scores, and one had a fair score. Thirty patients had stable shoulders, and one had recurrent instability. All patients had improved shoulder scores and function and pain scores. CONCLUSIONS: Symptomatic patients with posteroinferior multidirectional instability had posteroinferior labral lesions, including retroversion of the posteroinferior labrum, which were previously unrecognized. Restoration of the labral buttress and capsular tension by arthroscopic capsulolabroplasty successfully stabilized shoulders with posteroinferior multidirectional instability.     

An evidence-based staging system for cutaneous melanoma

A completely revised staging system for cutaneous melanoma was implemented in 2003. The changes were validated with a prognostic factors analysis involving 17,600 melanoma patients from prospective databases. This major collaborative study of predicting melanoma outcome was conducted specifically for this project, and the results were used to finalize the criteria for this evidence-based staging system. In fact, this was the largest prognostic factors analysis of prospectively followed melanoma patients ever conducted. Important results that shaped the staging criteria involved both the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) criteria and stage grouping for all four stages of melanoma. Major changes in the staging include: (1) melanoma thickness and ulceration are the dominant predictors of survival in patients with localized melanoma (Stages I and II); deeper level of invasion (ie, IV and V) was independently associated with reduced survival only in patients with thin or T1 melanomas. (2) The number of metastatic lymph nodes and the tumor burden were the most dominant predictors of survival in patients with Stage III melanoma; patients with metastatic nodes detected by palpation had a shorter survival compared with patients whose nodal metastases were first detected by sentinel node excision of clinically occult or "microscopic" metastases. (3) The site of distant metastases (nonvisceral versus lung versus all other visceral metastatic sites) and the presence of elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were the dominant predictors of outcome in patients with Stage IV or distant metastases. (4) An upstaging was implemented for all patients with Stage I, II, and III disease when a primary melanoma is ulcerated by histopathological criteria. (5) Satellite metastases around a primary melanoma and in-transit metastases were merged into a single staging entity that is grouped into Stage III disease. (6) A new convention was implemented for defining clinical and pathological staging so as to take into account the new staging information gained from lymphatic mapping and sentinel node biopsy.     

Carcinoid tumors and fibrosis: an association with no explanation

Carcinoid tumors are slow-growing neuroendocrine neoplasms most commonly associated with the gut and broncho-pulmonary system. In many instances, they are identified at surgery for unexplained bowel obstruction or during exploration of the small bowel in search of a primary tumor once distant metastases have been detected. Carcinoid tumors of the small bowel often present with pronounced fibrosis in the peri-tumoral tissues, distant in the heart or lungs, and locally in the peritoneal cavity. Despite medical and therapeutic advances that have alleviated symptoms and prolonged life, a substantial subset of patients develops mesenteric and small bowel carcinoid fibrosis and/or carcinoid heart disease. Fibrosis, and increasingly cardiac heart disease, are important components of intestinal carcinoid disease and are of considerable clinical concern, as both of these conditions reflect a connective tissue disorder whose etiology, biology, and therapy are unknown. In the past, individuals with carcinoid disease died of metastasis and uncontrollable symptomatology. Currently, there exists no clinical method to determine the development of fibrosis and little is understood about the biological basis of fibrosis. The elucidation of the biology and management of fibrosis is thus an issue of paramount clinical and scientific importance in determining appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic strategy. Therefore, the unraveling of the molecular events indicative of fibrosis in these cells and the identification of appropriate therapeutic targets is of considerable patient-care relevance. We have surveyed the world literature over the past 40 yr to evaluate both the incidence of carcinoid processes and track the evolving understanding of this process. In addition, we have provided more current mechanistic information in regard to the biological basis of fibrosis associated with small bowel carcinoid tumors.     

The association of grandmaternal and maternal factors with maternal adult stature

BACKGROUND: Stature is an important determinant of several reproductive and non-reproductive health problems. Documentation of secular trends in stature has been based primarily on cross-sectional studies of special populations, primarily of men. The objective of this study is to determine how growth and socio-economic status (SES) factors relate to stature changes among lineal female relatives, maternal grandmothers to mothers. METHODS: The study base was derived from a population-based intergenerational cohort which linked several statewide databases to data from the mothers' own birth certificates: the Washington State Intergenerational Cohort. Mothers in these ethnic groups were separately studied: non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics. We generated simple, partial, and multiple correlation coefficients to investigate the association between stature and other growth and SES factors. RESULTS: A mother's stature is determined partly by her own mother's stature and partly by her birthweight. These two measures are individually stronger predictors of stature than are several available SES factors considered in combination-grandmother's age, parity, marital status, and mother's age. The maximal multiple correlation models yielded R2 values from 18% to 28%. CONCLUSIONS: Growth measures are stronger predictors of intergenerational changes in stature than are the several available socio-economic factors. However, socio-economic factors are partly responsible for the level of achieved prenatal and postnatal growth. Since grandmother's stature is a determinant of mother's birthweight, which in turn is a determinant of infant birthweight, some environmentally influenced determinants of some birth outcomes are already established before a prospective mother is conceived or born.     

Using electronic health records to help coordinate care

The use of electronic health records that can securely transmit patient data among physicians will help coordinate the care of 60 million Americans with multiple chronic conditions. This article summarizes the different organizations in the United States that are developing this technology. It discusses some of the problems encountered and the current initiatives to resolve them. The article concludes with three recommendations for enhancing care coordination: (1) a common health record, such as the Continuity of Care Record, to facilitate the exchange of clinical information among health providers; (2) regional governance structures to encourage the exchange of clinical data; and (3) payment by purchasers of care, both public and private, to physicians for using electronic health records.     

Weight at birth and subsequent risk of preeclampsia as an adult

OBJECTIVE: We examined the influence of maternal birth weight on the risk of the development of preeclampsia, a likely precursor to adult chronic disease. STUDY DESIGN: This hospital-based case-control study included 181 preeclampsia cases and 349 control subjects. Participants provided information about their birth weight and other covariates that included medical and reproductive history, prepregnancy weight, and adult height. Odds ratios and 95% CIs were estimated by logistic regression. RESULTS: The risk of preeclampsia decreased as maternal birth weight increased (P=.01). After an adjustment was made for confounders, data showed that women with a low birth weight (<2500 g) had a 2.3-fold increased risk of experiencing preeclampsia (95% CI, 1.0-5.3) as compared with women who weighed 2500 to 2999 g at birth. Conversely, women with a birth weight of >/=4000 g appeared to have a nonstatistically significant, but >50%, reduction in the risk of experiencing preeclampsia (95% CI, 0.2-1.2). This relationship differed for lean and overweight women (body mass index, <25 kg/m(2) vs >/=25 kg/m(2)). Among lean women, those who were low birth weight had a near doubling in risk of the development of preeclampsia (odds ratio, 1.9; 95% CI, 0.8-4.6), although this association did not reach statistical significance. However, among overweight women, those women who weighed <2500 g at birth had an almost 4-fold increased risk of experiencing preeclampsia (odds ratio, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.1-13.8). CONCLUSION: These results confirm two earlier reports and expand the literature by showing that women who are small at birth and who become overweight as adults are at particularly high risk of the development of preeclampsia.     

Advances in the management of endometrial adenocarcinoma. A review

Endometrial adenocarcinoma is the most common and curable gynecologic neoplasm; the five-year survival for women with surgical stage I disease ranges from 83% to 93%; stage II, 73%; stage III, 52%; and stage IV, 27%. The absence of an asymptomatic latency phase amenable to detection through screening and the already excellent cure rates seen with early-stage disease have precluded the need for endometrial cancer screening programs. Adenocarcinomas constitute 97% of endometrial cancers, with endometrioid the most common histologic subtype. Two different pathways of endometrial carcinogenesis exist. One arises in a background of estrogen excess, giving rise to atypical hyperplasia as the malignant precursor of the more common endometrioid adenocarcinomas. The use of oral contraceptives has consistently been shown to decrease the risk of developing endometrial carcinoma via this pathway, with 12 months or more of continuous use decreasing the lifetime risk by 40-50%. The alternate pathway of endometrial carcinogenesis represents malignant transformation of atrophic endometrium and proceeds through endometrial intraepithelial carcinoma as the malignant precursor of the more virulent serous papillary and clear cell endometrial adenocarcinomas. The staging of endometrial cancer (according to the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology) is surgical. Recent studies suggest a therapeutic benefit associated with extensive retroperitoneal lymph node evaluation to determine the disease extent and thereby more effectively direct potentially life-saving adjuvant therapy. Adjuvant radiation therapy, known to have survival benefit in advanced-stage disease, may also have survival benefit in intermediate-risk surgical stage I disease on the basis of results recently released from a Gynecologic Oncology Group study. The use of radiation therapy, systemic chemotherapy and hormonal therapy, alone or in combination, is recommended for primary advanced and recurrent disease.     

Multicenter study assessing effects of heat and moisture exchanger use on respiratory symptoms and voice quality in laryngectomized individuals

OBJECTIVE: A multicenter study based in the United States assessed the heat-moisture exchanger effect on respiratory symptoms and "voice quality" of laryngectomees. PATIENTS AND MEASURES: The study group consisted of 81 consecutive laryngectomees (62 men and 19 women; mean age, 66 years; age range, 45 to 89 years), with a median follow-up of 3.5 years (range, 0.5 to 24 years). A structured questionnaire was used to assess 3-month results, and tally sheets recorded the frequency of cough-expectoration during first and last trial weeks. RESULTS: Compliance was 73% (n = 59); decrease in coughing, 68%; sputum production, 73%; forced expectoration, 60%; and need for stoma cleaning, 52% of these 59 patients. Regarding daily cough-expectoration frequency, a statistically significant decrease (P < 0.0001) was found between the first and last trial weeks. Regarding influence on voice quality, 46% of regular users reported improvement in intelligibility, 30% in loudness, 37% in fluency, and 40% in telephone intelligibility. Fourteen patients (19%) reported skin irritation, with discontinuation of 7 patients. CONCLUSION: The observed decrease in pulmonary symptoms and improvement in voice quality confirm earlier reports from the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Spain indicating improvement in postlaryngectomy quality of life.     

Birthweight and risk of overall and cause-specific childhood mortality

Early life events have important short- and long-term consequences. It is clear from previous studies that birthweight is associated with infant mortality and with childhood and adult morbidities. However, few studies have focused on the relationship between birthweight and childhood mortality. To assess this relationship, we conducted a population-based case-control study of children born during 1968-96 in Washington state. Cases consisted of 6247 children who died at 1-19 years of age. A total of 31 074 controls were matched five to one to cases by birth year. Compared with children with a birthweight of 3000-3499 g, children with lower birthweights had a greater risk of childhood mortality. These lower birthweight children had increased risks of childhood deaths from infectious diseases, congenital anomalies, central nervous system diseases and heart disease, but not of deaths resulting from accidents, cancer, suicide or homicide. The magnitude of these risks differed somewhat by age. Our results suggest that birthweight exerts important influences on children's risk of age-specific and cause-specific mortalities, particularly those with a strong biological component.