LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Anterior Decompression and Shortening Reconstruction with a Titanium Mesh Cage through a Posterior Approach Alone for the Treatment of Lumbar Burst Fractures

STUDY DESIGN
A retrospective study.


PURPOSE
To examine the efficacy and safety for a posterior-approach circumferential decompression and shortening reconstruction with a titanium mesh cage for lumbar burst fractures.


OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE
Surgical decompression and reconstruction for severely unstable lumbar burst fractures requires an anterior or combined anteroposterior approach. Furthermore, anterior instrumentation for the lower lumbar is restricted through the presence of major vessels.


METHODS
Three patients with an L1 burst fracture, one with an L3 and three with an L4 (5 men, 2 women; mean age, 65.0 years) who underwent circumferential decompression and shortening reconstruction with a titanium mesh cage through a posterior approach alone and a 4-year follow-up were evaluated regarding the clinical and radiological course.


RESULTS
Mean operative time was 277 minutes. Mean blood loss was 471 ml. In 6 patients, the Frankel score improved more than one grade after surgery, and the remaining patient was at Frankel E both before and after surgery. Mean preoperative visual analogue scale was 7.0, improving to 0.7 postoperatively. Local kyphosis improved from 15.7° before surgery to -11.0° after surgery. In 3 cases regarding the mid to lower lumbar patients, local kyphosis increased more than 10° by 3 months following surgery, due to subsidence of the cages. One patient developed severe tilting and subsidence of the cage, requiring additional surgery.


CONCLUSIONS
The results concerning this small series suggest the feasibility, efficacy, and safety of this treatment for unstable lumbar burst fractures. This technique from a posterior approach alone offers several advantages over traditional anterior or combined anteroposterior approaches.
The dawn of Big Data - Hbase

HBase is a distributed column-oriented database built on top of HDFS. HBase is the Hadoop application to use when you require real-time read/write random access to very large datasets. HBase is a scalable data store targeted at random read and write access of (fairly-) structured data. It's modeled after Google's Big table and targeted to support large tables, on the order of billions of rows and millions of columns. It uses HDFS as the underlying file system and is designed to be fully distributed and highly available. Version 0.20 introduces significant performance improvement. Base's Table Input Format is designed to allow a Map Reduce program to operate on data stored in an HBase table. Table Output Format is for writing Map Reduce outputs into an HBase table. HBase has different storage characteristics than HDFS, such as the ability to do row updates and column indexing, so we can expect to see these features used by Hive in future releases. It is already possible to access HBase tables from Hive. This paper includes the step by step introduction to the HBase, Identify differences between apache HBase and a traditional RDBMS, The Problem with Relational Database Systems, Relation between the Hadoop and HBase, How an Apache HBase table is physically stored on disk. Later part of this paper introduces Map Reduce, HBase table and how Apache HBase Cells stores data, what happens to data when it is deleted. Last part explains difference between Big Data and HBase, Conclusion followed with the References.
Optimal location and capability of FACTS devices in a power system by means of sensitivity analysis and EEAC

This paper presents a new method to seek the optimal location and capability of FACTS devices based on sensitivity analysis and extended equal area criterion (EEAC) in a power system. The optimal location and capability of static VAr compensator (SVC) and static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) in transmission line is investigated for enhancing static voltage and transient stability. The method firstly put all buses in the order by voltage-reactive power sensitivity, then choose the optimal location and appropriate capability of FACTS devices with extended equal area criterion. The method considers static voltage and transient stability, it is simple in computation and suitable for large-scale interconnection power grid. Simulations are performed on a multi-machine power system for optimal location and appropriate capability of SVC and STATCOM, the results obtained are satisfying and will be useful for enhancing power systems' reliability.
Unraveling the Relationship between Motor Symptoms, Affective States and Contextual Factors in Parkinson’s Disease: A Feasibility Study of the Experience Sampling Method

BACKGROUND
In Parkinson's disease (PD), the complex relationship between motor symptoms, affective states, and contextual factors remains to be elucidated. The Experience Sampling Method provides (ESM) a novel approach to this issue. Using a mobile device with a special purpose application (app), motor symptoms, affective states and contextual factors are assessed repeatedly at random moments in the flow of daily life, yielding an intensive time series of symptoms and experience. The aim of this study was to study the feasibility of this method.


METHOD
We studied the feasibility of a five-day period of ESM in PD and its ability to objectify diurnal fluctuations in motor symptom severity and their relation with affect and contextual factors in five PD patients with motor fluctuations.


RESULTS
Participants achieved a high compliance, with 84% of assessment moments completed without disturbance of daily activities. The utility of the device was rated 8 on a 10-point scale. We were able to capture extensive diurnal fluctuations that were not revealed by routine clinical assessment. In addition, we were able to detect clinically relevant associations between motor symptoms, emotional fluctuations and contextual factors at an intra-individual level.


CONCLUSIONS
ESM represents a viable and novel approach to elucidate relationships between motor symptoms, affective states and contextual factors at the level of individual subjects. ESM holds promise for clinical practice and scientific research.
Chimeric antigen receptor T cells for sustained remissions in leukemia.

BACKGROUND
Relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is difficult to treat despite the availability of aggressive therapies. Chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cells targeting CD19 may overcome many limitations of conventional therapies and induce remission in patients with refractory disease.


METHODS
We infused autologous T cells transduced with a CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CTL019) lentiviral vector in patients with relapsed or refractory ALL at doses of 0.76×10(6) to 20.6×10(6) CTL019 cells per kilogram of body weight. Patients were monitored for a response, toxic effects, and the expansion and persistence of circulating CTL019 T cells.


RESULTS
A total of 30 children and adults received CTL019. Complete remission was achieved in 27 patients (90%), including 2 patients with blinatumomab-refractory disease and 15 who had undergone stem-cell transplantation. CTL019 cells proliferated in vivo and were detectable in the blood, bone marrow, and cerebrospinal fluid of patients who had a response. Sustained remission was achieved with a 6-month event-free survival rate of 67% (95% confidence interval [CI], 51 to 88) and an overall survival rate of 78% (95% CI, 65 to 95). At 6 months, the probability that a patient would have persistence of CTL019 was 68% (95% CI, 50 to 92) and the probability that a patient would have relapse-free B-cell aplasia was 73% (95% CI, 57 to 94). All the patients had the cytokine-release syndrome. Severe cytokine-release syndrome, which developed in 27% of the patients, was associated with a higher disease burden before infusion and was effectively treated with the anti-interleukin-6 receptor antibody tocilizumab.


CONCLUSIONS
Chimeric antigen receptor-modified T-cell therapy against CD19 was effective in treating relapsed and refractory ALL. CTL019 was associated with a high remission rate, even among patients for whom stem-cell transplantation had failed, and durable remissions up to 24 months were observed. (Funded by Novartis and others; CART19 ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT01626495 and NCT01029366.).
Endoscopic medial maxillectomy with preservation of inferior turbinate and nasolacrimal duct.

BACKGROUND
Endoscopic medial maxillectomy (EMM) is a safe and effective procedure for treatment of inverted papilloma (IP) originating from the maxillary sinus. However, EMM usually removes the inferior turbinate and nasolacrimal duct. The inferior turbinate has a critical function in conditioning of the nasal airflow, and resection of the nasolacrimal ducts has a risk of epiphora. We developed a newly derived surgical technique, endoscopic modified medial maxillectomy (EMMM), which enables preservation of the inferior turbinate and nasolacrimal duct.


METHODS
A retrospective case series of six patients with IP and nine patients with mucoceles of the maxillary sinus after a Caldwell-Luc operation, who underwent surgery using the EMMM technique, were reviewed.


RESULTS
In patients with IP, there were no recurrences for a mean follow-up of 16.7 months. Eight of nine patients with mucoceles of the maxillary sinus showed patency. All patients showed preservation of the inferior turbinate. One patient with mucocele was referred for dacryocystorhinostomy because of epiphora.


CONCLUSION
EMMM produces access to the maxillary sinus identically to conventional EMM, despite preservation of the inferior turbinate and nasolacrimal duct.
How valuable is medical social media data? Content analysis of the medical web

It is still an open question where to search for complying a specific information need due to the large amount and diversity of information available. In this paper, a content analysis of health-related information provided in the Web is performed to get an overview on the medical content available. In particular, the content of medical Question & Answer Portals, medical weblogs, medical reviews and Wikis is compared. For this purpose, medical concepts are extracted from the text material with existing extraction technology. Based on these concepts, the content of the different knowledge resources is compared. Since medical weblogs describe experiences as well as information, it is of large interest to be able to distinguish between informative and affective posts. For this reason, a method to classify blogs based on their information content is presented, which exploits high-level features describing the medical and affective content of blog posts. The results show that there are substantial differences in the content of various health-related Web resources. Weblogs and answer portals mainly deal with diseases and medications. The Wiki and the encyclopedia provide more information on anatomy and procedures. While patients and nurses describe personal aspects of their life, doctors aim to present health-related information in their blog posts. The knowledge on content differences and information content can be exploited by search engines to improve ranking, search and to direct users to appropriate knowledge sources. 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Position paper: Management of men complaining of a small penis despite an actually normal size.

INTRODUCTION
With the worldwide increase in penile augmentation procedures and claims of devices designed to elongate the penis, it becomes crucial to study the scientific basis of such procedures or devices, as well as the management of a complaint of a small penis in men with a normal penile size.


AIM
The aim of this work is to study the scientific basis of opting to penile augmentation procedures and to develop guidelines based on the best available evidence for the management of men complaining of a small penis despite an actually normal size.


METHODS
We reviewed the literature and evaluated the evidence about what the normal penile size is, what patients complaining of a small penis usually suffer from, benefits vs. complications of surgery, penile stretching or traction devices, and outcome with patient education and counseling. Repeated presentation and detailed discussions within the Standard Committee of the International Society for Sexual Medicine were performed.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Recommendations are based on the evaluation of evidence-based medical literature, widespread standards committee discussion, public presentation, and debate.


RESULTS
We propose a practical approach for evaluating and counseling patients complaining of a small-sized penis.


CONCLUSIONS
Based on the current status of science, penile lengthening procedure surgery is still considered experimental and should only be limited to special circumstances within research or university institutions with supervising ethics committees.
Competact, a fixed combination of pioglitazone and metformin, improves metabolic markers in type 2 diabetes patients with insufficient glycemic control by metformin alone--results from a post-marketing surveillance trial under daily routine conditions.

BACKGROUND
In patients with type 2 diabetes, glycemic control to target goals can only be achieved for a while by single-drug treatment. Antidiabetes therapy has to be adapted according to the individual course of the disease. This trial investigates the impact of Competact (Takeda Pharma, Aachen, Germany) (marketed as ActoplusMet in the United States)-a fixed combination of 850 mg of metformin with 15 mg of pioglitazone-for diabetes treatment in patients with insufficient glycemic control by metformin alone.


STUDY DESIGN
This observational drug monitoring trial was performed at 1,480 study sites in Germany, and 4,866 complete patient data sets were included into the final analyses. Mean +/- SD age was 60.8 +/- 9.6 years (2,171 women, 2,691 men; disease duration, 6.7 +/- 4.7 years; body mass index [BMI], 31.0 +/- 5.2 kg/m(2)). In total, 43.8% of the patients received lipid-lowering drugs (antihypertensive medication, 74.3%). Main inclusion criteria were type 2 diabetes, metformin monotherapy, and an initial hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) value between 6.6% and 9.9%. Parameters of glycemic control (HbA1c, fasting blood glucose [FBG]), blood pressure (BP), inflammation (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hsCRP]), and lipid metabolism (total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein [HDL]-cholesterol, non-HDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides) were collected at baseline and after 4 months.


RESULTS
All investigated parameters improved significantly (all P < 0.001) after 4 months of therapy with Competact (baseline vs. end point: systolic BP, 139.7 +/- 15.1 vs. 134.4 +/- 12.0 mm Hg; diastolic BP, 83.1 +/- 8.9 vs. 80.5 +/- 7.5 mm Hg; HbA1c, 7.8 +/- 1.0% vs. 7.0 +/- 0.8%; FBG, 9.0 +/- 2.6 vs. 7.0 +/- 1.7 mM; cholesterol, 5.7 +/- 1.1 mM vs. 5.3 +/- 0.9 mM; HDL-cholesterol, 1.2 +/- 0.4 mM vs. 1.3 +/- 0.4 mM; non-HDL-cholesterol, 4.5 +/- 1.2 mM vs. 4.0 +/- 0.9 mM; triglycerides, 2.5 +/- 1.0 mM vs. 2.1 +/- 0.8 mM; hsCRP, 3.2 +/- 2.6 mg/L vs. 2.7 +/- 2.3 mg/L). It is noteworthy that the BMI was not affected by Competact (31.0 +/- 5.2 kg/m(2) vs. 31.1 +/- 6.1 kg/m(2), P = 0.221).


CONCLUSIONS
These observational results, obtained from a non-selected patient population under daily routine conditions, show the beneficial effects of a pioglitazone/metformin combination for diabetes patients with insufficient glycemic control under daily routine conditions.
Early diagnosis of asthma in young children by using non-invasive biomarkers of airway inflammation and early lung function measurements: study protocol of a case-control study

BACKGROUND
Asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood, characterized by chronic airway inflammation. There are problems with the diagnosis of asthma in young children since the majority of the children with recurrent asthma-like symptoms is symptom free at 6 years, and does not have asthma. With the conventional diagnostic tools it is not possible to differentiate between preschool children with transient symptoms and children with asthma. The analysis of biomarkers of airway inflammation in exhaled breath is a non-invasive and promising technique to diagnose asthma and monitor inflammation in young children. Moreover, relatively new lung function tests (airway resistance using the interrupter technique) have become available for young children. The primary objective of the ADEM study (Asthma DEtection and Monitoring study), is to develop a non-invasive instrument for an early asthma diagnosis in young children, using exhaled inflammatory markers and early lung function measurements. In addition, aetiological factors, including gene polymorphisms and gene expression profiles, in relation to the development of asthma are studied.


METHODS/DESIGN
A prospective case-control study is started in 200 children with recurrent respiratory symptoms and 50 control subjects without respiratory symptoms. At 6 years, a definite diagnosis of asthma is made (primary outcome measure) on basis of lung function assessments and current respiratory symptoms ('golden standard'). From inclusion until the definite asthma diagnosis, repeated measurements of lung function tests and inflammatory markers in exhaled breath (condensate), blood and faeces are performed. The study is registered and ethically approved.


DISCUSSION
This article describes the study protocol of the ADEM study. The new diagnostic techniques applied in this study could make an early diagnosis of asthma possible. An early and reliable asthma diagnosis at 2-3 years will have consequences for the management of the large group of young children with asthma-like symptoms. It will avoid both over-treatment of children with transient wheeze and under-treatment of children with asthma. This might have a beneficial influence on the prognosis of asthma in these young children. Besides, insight into the pathophysiology and aetiology of asthma will be obtained.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
This study is registered by (ClinicalTrials.gov) (NCT00422747).
Importance of a patient's personal health history on assessments of future risk of coronary heart disease.

OBJECTIVE
Although many coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors are known, the role of an individual's changing personal health history is unclear. We implemented this study to evaluate whether accounting for previous Framingham Risk Scores (FRSs) improves the predictive ability of a current FRS for future CHD in middle-aged adults.


METHODS
We analyzed data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC), a longitudinal cohort of people 45 to 64 years old at entry (1986 to 1989 through 2001). FRSs were calculated for participants in the ARIC cohort (3901 men, 5406 women) at baseline (visit 3) and 3 and 6 years before. Using Cox regressions we evaluated the risk of CHD development for the FRS 6 years from baseline and then evaluated whether the addition of the change in FRS assessments from 3 and 6 years before the baseline improved the predictive ability of the FRS. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curves were compared.


RESULTS
The addition of the difference between the baseline FRS (eg, in 1995) and the FRS from 6 years earlier (eg, in 1989) to predict CHD development by 2001 for the entire cohort yielded an AUROC of 0.730, which was a significant improvement over just using the baseline FRS (P < .05). The effect was located primarily among women, with the AUROC curve improving from 0.667 to 0.709 (P < .05). There was no improvement for CHD risk prediction in men when the earlier FRS assessments were taken into account. Men seem to have less change in some risk factors over time.


CONCLUSIONS
Accounting for an individual's history improves risk assessments based on current measures.
Cord blood-derived cytokine-induced killer cells biotherapy combined with second-line chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced solid malignancies.

This study investigated the efficacy of cord blood-derived cytokine-induced killer (CB-CIK) biotherapy combined with second-line chemotherapy in treating advanced solid malignancies after first-line chemotherapy failure. Forty patients with advanced solid malignancies after first-line chemotherapy failure were divided into two groups: CB-CIK cells transfusion plus second-line chemotherapy (CB-CIK+Chemotherapy) group and second-line chemotherapy alone (Chemotherapy) group. The ORR and DCR were 30% and 80% in CB-CIK + Chemotherapy group compared with 15% and 70% in Chemotherapy group (P = 0.451 for ORR and P = 0.716 for DCR) respectively. The time to progression and the median survival time were 3.45 months (95% CI 2.30-4.60 months) and 11.17 months (95% CI 9.05-13.28 months) in CB-CIK+Chemotherapy group compared with 2.03 months (95% CI 1.23-2.82 months) and 7.52 months (95% CI 5.97-9.06 months) in Chemotherapy group respectively. Compared with patients in Chemotherapy group, the patients in CB-CIK+Chemotherapy group had significantly longer PFS (P = 0.031) and overall survival (P = 0.048). In vitro studies further revealed that CB-CIK cells could overcome drug resistance in cisplatin-resistant lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549/CDDP through downregulating ABCG-2 and P-gp and induce cytotoxicity through the high level expression of CD3, CD56, FasL, and CD69. This could explain why CB-CIK could have synergistic effects with second-line chemotherapy shown in this clinical study. We concluded CB-CIK cells combined with second-line chemotherapy can significantly improve PFS and median survival compared with second-line chemotherapy alone in patients with advanced solid malignancies after first-line chemotherapy failure.