Workers compensation-reported injuries among security and law enforcement personnel in the private versus public sectors.

BACKGROUND: Private and Public security and law enforcement (SLE) sectors perform multiple overlapping job duties. METHODS: Workers' compensation (WC) SLE first reports of injury (FROI) data (2005-2015) were analyzed to describe injuries, identify differences in awarded WC benefits, and compare the probability of a FROI resulting in awarded benefits between Public and Private SLE. A Pearson's chi-square test was utilized and reverse selection logistic regression was performed to estimate the odds ratio that a FROI would result in an awarded benefit for Private vs. Public SLE, while adjusting for relevant covariates. RESULTS: Private SLE had higher FROI percentages for younger and for older workers, fall injuries, and back injuries, compared to Public SLE. The adjusted odds that a FROI resulted in an awarded benefit was 1.4 times higher for Private SLE compared to Public SLE; (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09,1.69). Middle-aged SLE employee adjusted odds of awarded benefits was 3.3 times (95% CI [1.96, 5.39]) higher compared to younger employees. Adjusted odds of awarded benefits was 3.8 times (95% CI [1.34, 10.61]) higher for gunshots and 1.7 times (95% CI [1.22, 2.39]) higher for fractures/dislocations compared to other nature of injuries. Motor vehicle injury, fall/slip, and strain related FROIs had elevated adjusted odds of awarded benefits compared to other injury causes. CONCLUSIONS: Results highlight the importance of injury prevention education and worker safety training for Private and Public SLE sector workers on fall prevention (especially in Private SLE) and strain prevention (especially in Public SLE), as well as motor vehicle safety.

Retrorenal colon: implications for percutaneous diskectomy.

It has been recommended that computed tomography (CT) with the patient prone be performed in every patient undergoing percutaneous diskectomy; this would enable detection of a retrorenal location of the colon, which could interfere with the percutaneous procedure. In this evaluation of 346 prone CT studies, only one patient (0.29%) was found to have retrorenal or retropsoas bowel that would have been perforated at diskectomy. Because of this extremely low prevalence, the performance of prone CT in every patient undergoing percutaneous lumbar diskectomy is not believed to be necessary.

Transbronchoscopic needle aspiration in the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer.

We examined the safety and yield of transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) in 28 patients who were subsequently proven to have lung cancer. TBNA in 48 sites produced no complications. TBNA was positive for carcinoma in the two patients whose tracheal carinae appeared abnormal on computerized tomography. When the carinae were normal, only one of 13 aspirations was positive for cancer. None of eight paratracheal aspirations was positive. Aspiration of visibly abnormal bronchial bifurcations revealed carcinoma in four of 15 cases. We conclude that TBNA is a safe procedure for the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer, and that the likelihood of positive results is increased by the presence of radiologic and endoscopic abnormalities.

Glucoheptonate measurement of differential renal function.

In previous studies using dogs whose renal function was rendered asymmetric by unilateral infarction or partial ureteral obstruction, the efficacy of technetium-99m diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid and dimercaptosuccinic acid in the measurement of differential renal function was demonstrated. The present study was undertaken to determine if technetium-99m glucoheptonate could also be used to quantitate differential renal function in these conditions. Five dogs with partial ureteral obstruction, 4 with segmental infarction and 2 with ipsilateral combination of both were studied. Seven to 10 days following these interventions the animals were given a bolus injection of 10 mCi Tc-99m glucoheptonate. This was acquired in the posterior projection on a minicomputer at 2 seconds/frame for 3 minutes. Static images were obtained anteriorly and posteriorly between 3 and 5 hours postinjection. The following day iothalamate and creatinine clearances were measured by ureteral catheterization. There was good correlation between differential function calculated from the 1 to 3 minute portion of the bolus study and that determined by the ureteral catheter studies, r greater than 0.99. Correlations based on the static images were less satisfactory due to pelvic retention in the obstructed animals, r = 0.73. We conclude that technetium-99m glucoheptonate may be used to determine differential renal function.

Evaluation of digital venous angiography for the diagnosis of renovascular hypertension.

Thirty-two patients being evaluated for hypertension by angiography were also studied by digital video subtraction angiography (DVSA). Twenty-three of the 76 renal arteries were found by conventional angiography to have significant lesions. Two experienced angiographers evaluated the DVSA studies without knowledge of the angiographic results. The accuracy of DVSA for evaluation of renal arteries was 87% for Observer I and 80% for Observer II. Sensitivities were 87% and 83% and specificities 87% and 79% for the two observers. Of the 13 patients with significant lesions, Observer I identified at lest one lesion in all 13 while Observer II identified a lesion in 12 of the 13. The high false-positive rate (26% for Observer I and 37% for Observer II) was thought to be caused by subtraction artifacts, quantum noise, relatively low spatial resolution, and the Mach effect.

Interruption of gastroesophageal varices: steel coil technique.

The Gianturco stainless steel coil occluding device was successfully used in the palliative obliteration of varices in three alcoholic cirrhotic patients via transhepatic catheterization of the portal vein and its tributaries. Complications of the procedure consisted of pulmonary embolization of a 1.3-cm-diam helical coil and contrast-medium-related acute renal failure in one patient with huge gastroesophageal varices. These complications resolved without significant sequelae. The coil has been found to be a simple, rapid, effective means of obliterating varices.

Cell size and growth characteristics of cultured fibroblasts isolated from normal and keloid tissue.

No differences in appearance or in cell size distribution were observed between cultured fibroblasts derived from normal skin, mature scars, or keloids. Artifactual differences in cell size distributions between strains can result when populations are compared at different cell densities. Keloid derived fibroblasts remain euploid in culture, and they have the same growth rate and same degree of density-dependent growth inhibition as cultured normal human fibroblasts.