Combined clinical risk indices with quantitative ultrasound calcaneus measurement for identifying osteoporosis in Thai postmenopausal women.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the diagnostic performance of clinical risk indices combined with quantitative ultrasound calcaneus measurement (QUS) for identifying osteoporosis in Thai postmenopausal women. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The present study was designed as a cross-sectional investigation in 300 Thai women, aged between 38 and 85 years (mean age: 58). Femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by DXA (Hologic QDR-4500; Hologic, Bedford, MA, USA). A BMD T-scores < or = -2.5 was defined as "osteoporosis"; otherwise, "non-osteoporosis". QUS was measured by Achilles+ (GE Lunar, Madison, WI, USA) and converted to T-score. The OSTA and KKOS score was calculated for each woman using her age and weight Women with OSTA/KKOS scores < or = -1 and > -1 were classified as "high risk" and "low risk", respectively. RESULTS: Using DXA as the gold standard, the sensitivity of QUS to identify osteoporosis was lower than the sensitivity of OSTA/KKOS (60 vs. 71/74%) but the specificity and PPV of QUS were higher than OSTA/KKOS. The sensitivity increased when using OSTA/KKOS combined with QUS to identify osteoporosis (approximately 87-89%) while the specificity, PPV and NPV were comparable with using clinical risk indices alone. The risk (odds ratio; OR) of osteoporosis when QUS T-score < or = -2.5 alone was 9.94 (95%CI: 4.74-20.87), which was higher than high risk by OSTA/KKOS alone (OR: 6.35, 95%CI: 2.99-13.47 for OSTA and 8.15, 95%CI: 3.76-17.66 for KKOS). Furthermore, individuals were classified "high risk" from OSTA/KKOS with QUS T-score < or = -2.5SD, the risk of osteoporosis was increased (OR: 43.68, 95%CI: 13.89-137.36 and OR: 60.92, 95%CI: 17.69-209.76 for OSTA and KKOS, respectively). CONCLUSION: Using the clinical risk indices combined with QUS could improve the accuracy of osteoporosis identification. This approach could be used in a primary care setting or community-based hospital where a DXA machine is not available.

The correlation of Tc-99m MIBI scintigraphy and histological response in determining the percentage of tumor necrosis in osteosarcoma after preoperative chemotherapy.

PURPOSE: The most important prognostic factor of osteosarcoma is the percentage of tumor necrosis. Only well trained and experienced musculoskeletal pathologists can count and assess the percentage of tumor necrosis from the resected specimens. The purpose of the present study was to characterize the correlation of Tc-99m MIBI scintigraphy for assessing the percentage of tumor necrosis using postoperative histology as a gold standard. MATERIAL AND METHOD: During September 2002 to August 2004, nine consecutive patients with the diagnosis of conventional osteosarcoma were included in the present study. The osteosarcoma protocol comprises 3 courses of doxorubicin and cisplatin preoperatively followed by wide resection of tumors and another 3 courses of postoperative chemotherapy. The Tc-99m MIBI scintigraphy examination was carried out before commencing chemotherapy and after completing preoperative chemotherapy. The tumor uptake was measured using the tumor to the background ratio (TBR). Comparison of TBR before and after preoperative chemotherapy was used to calculate the alteration ratio which was reported in terms of percentage. All of the resected specimens were sent to the pathological department. The histological assessment of the response to chemotherapy was performed using the standard technique according to the current practice of osteosarcoma from the Mayo Clinic. The percentages of tumor necrosis from histology were also reported. RESULTS: The analysis of the correlation between the reduction of tracer uptake and the postoperative histological response was performed. The correlation and linear regression analysis showed that the two methods had a significant correlation (R = 0.75) regression coefficient (1.172) with p = 0.020 and 0.043, respectively. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that Tc-99m MIBI scintigraphy had a significant correlation with percentage of tumor necrosis from histology. This technique can be used to predict the response of osteosarcoma after preoperative chemotherapy.

Application of Gabapentin in Thai women with menopausal syndrome.

Application of 100 mg. three times a day of Gabapentin group, 70 women to relieve menopausal syndrome with the following symptoms:Paresthesia,sweating, hot flushes in a comparative study with the amitriptyline group, 52 women 10 mg once daily. Analysis of data was done by Chi square which assumed that the Gabapentin is superior to amitripyline as accept alternative hypothesis (Ha) and other reject null hypothesis(H0) assumed both have the same action. The result of Chi square showed that the value of calculated Chi square (39.32) is higher than Table Chi square (6.63) at p < 0.01 so the authors have to accept that Ha means that Gabapentin therapy is more significantly effective than amitripyline(p < 0.01). In addition, the present study showed that the number need to treat (NNT) of Gabapentin =2.