ABSTRACT
Objective:To observe the clinical effect of helmet therapy in cranial remodeling of infants with deformational plagiocephaly.Methods:A total of 114 infants with plagiocephaly received helmet therapy at the age of 4 to 12 months over the period from 2016 to 2018 and the results were analyzed retrospectively. Seventy-four were male and forty female. The average ages were (7.49±1.91) and (7.54±2.10) months, respectively. A Spectra scanner was used to quantify each head′s radial symmetry index (RSI), cranial vault asymmetry (CVA) and cranial vault asymmetry index (CVAI) before and after 100 days of treatment, and those data were related with age (4-6 months, 7-9 months and 10-12 months), gender and severity of deformity (levels III-V).Results:The average RSI, CVA and CVAI improved significantly for all of the infants studied. The average RSI, CVA and CVAI improved the most for those 4-6 months old. Those with level-IV deformity showed significantly better improvement than those with level III or V deformity.Conclusions:Helmet therapy is an effective way to improve deformities due to plagiocephaly among infants. The best age for treatment is 4-6 months. Patients with less malformation are more easily corrected.
ABSTRACT
Two methods of different RNA extractions from Conus venom tube and toxin gland of seven cone snail species were performed. ThermoScript~ TM RNase H~ - Transcriptase and AMV Transcriptase were used to synthesize cDNA separately. The cDNAs were used as templates to amplify conotoxin genes by PCR.The optimized RNA isolation and cDNA synthesis methods were obtained according to RT-PCR results, which would be the basis for cloning of new conotoxin genes.