Treatment of nonunion after femoral neck fracture with valgus intertrochanteric osteotomy: a case report with 18-year follow-up.

We herein report the long-term effect of valgus intertrochanteric osteotomy for nonunion after femoral neck fracture. In this report, we describe our experience using valgus intertrochanteric osteotomy to treat nonunion after femoral neck fracture in a 20-year-old woman. The patient was discharged from the hospital 10 days after the operation, the internal fixation device was removed 1 year after the operation, and the patient was then followed up for 18 years. Valgus intertrochanteric osteotomy can effectively treat nonunion after adductive femoral neck fracture.

Frequency-Specific Changes of Resting Brain Activity in Parkinson's Disease: A Machine Learning Approach.

The application of resting state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) in Parkinson's disease (PD) was widely performed using standard statistical tests, however, the machine learning (ML) approach has not yet been investigated in PD using RS-fMRI. In current study, we utilized the mean regional amplitude values as the features in patients with PD (n = 72) and in healthy controls (HC, n = 89). The t-test and linear support vector machine were employed to select the features and make prediction, respectively. Three frequency bins (Slow-5: 0.0107-0.0286 Hz; Slow-4: 0.0286-0.0821 Hz; conventional: 0.01-0.08 Hz) were analyzed. Our results showed that the Slow-4 may provide important information than Slow-5 in PD, and it had almost identical classification performance compared with the Combined (Slow-5 and Slow-4) and conventional frequency bands. Similar with previous neuroimaging studies in PD, the discriminative regions were mainly included the disrupted motor system, aberrant visual cortex, dysfunction of paralimbic/limbic and basal ganglia networks. The lateral parietal lobe, such as right inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and supramarginal gyrus (SMG), was detected as the discriminative features exclusively in Slow-4. Our findings, at the first time, indicated that the ML approach is a promising choice for detecting abnormal regions in PD, and a multi-frequency scheme would provide us more specific information.

[Effects of inner-heating acupuncture on apoptosis of chondrocytes and expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 in rats with knee osteoarthritis].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of inner-heating acupuncture on apoptosis of chondrocytes and expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 in rats with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). METHODS: A total of 32 rats were divided into a normal group, a model group, a control treatment group and a treatment group by random number grouping method, 8 rats in each one. The rats in the normal group received no intervention. The rats in the remaining three groups adopted modified Videman method to develop KOA model, the ankle joint of left posterior leg was fully extended and fixed with a resin bandage for 6 weeks. After successful modeling, the rats in the model group received no intervention. The rats in the control treatment group were treated with medium-frequency pulse electrotherapy. The rats in the treatment group were treated with inner- heating acupuncture, 30 min each treatment, once a day, five days per week, and totally 3-week treatment was given. After 3 weeks, the damaged cartilage tissue was collected, and HE staining was used to observe the pathological changes of the cartilage tissue of the knee joint. ELISA was used to detect the content of cytochrome-C in the tissue homogenate supernatant. The chondrocytes in damaged cartilage tissue were isolated, flow cytometer was used to detect the changes of apoptosis and mitochondrial membrane potential. The mRNA and protein expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 in chondrocytes were detected by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot (WB), respectively. RESULTS: Compared with the normal group, the damage of cartilage tissue in the model group was significant, and the expression level of Cyt-C in the homogenate supernatant of damaged cartilage tissue was increased (P<0.01); the chondrocyte apoptosis was increased significantly (P<0.01); the chondrocyte mitochondrial membrane potential was decreased significantly (P<0.01); the mRNA and protein expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 was increased significantly (all P<0.01). Compared with the model group, the cartilage injury in the control treatment group and the treatment group was significantly relieved; the expression level of Cyt-C in the supernatant of damaged cartilage tissue homogenate was decreased (both P<0.01); the chondrocyte apoptosis was significantly reduced (both P<0.01); the chondrocyte mitochondrial membrane potential was increased significantly (both P<0.01). Moreover, the mRNA and protein expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 was significantly reduced (all P<0.01). Compared with the control treatment group, the treatment group was more effective in the treatment of KOA. CONCLUSION: The inner-heating acupuncture could significantly improve the pathological changes of KOA rats, inhibit the apoptosis of chondrocytes, which may be closely related to the suppression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 expression.

[Efficacy of integrative respiratory rehabilitation training in exercise ability and quality of life of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in stable phase: a randomized controlled trial].

BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important clinical disease, and its global prevalence and mortality rates are high. It is meaningful to investigate the efficacy of integrative respiratory rehabilitation training in quality of life and respiratory physiology of COPD patients in stable phase. OBJECTIVE: To observe the efficacy of integrative respiratory rehabilitation training in exercise ability and quality of life of COPD patients in stable phase. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS: Eighty outpatients and inpatients with COPD from Department of Respiratory Medicine, Taihe Hospital, Yunyang Medical College were randomly divided into 4 groups, with 20 patients in each group. The patients in group A only received drug therapy, the patients in group B received traditional qigong training, the patients in group C received modern rehabilitation training, and the patients in group D received integrative respiratory rehabilitation training. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Chronic respiratory questionnaire (CRQ), 6-minute walking distance and Borg score in each group were examined before and after one-, three-, and six-month and one-year treatment. RESULTS: The 6-minute walking distance, Borg score and CRQ score in group A had no significant changes after treatment (P>0.05). After one-month treatment, there were no significant differences in 6-minute walking distance and Borg score in groups B, C and D as compared with those before treatment (P<0.05). After three-month treatment, 6-minute walking distance and Borg score were improved in groups B, C and D (P<0.05). After six-month and one-year treatment, 6-minute walking distance, Borg score and CRQ score in groups B, C and D were improved as compared with those before treatment (P<0.05), and there were significant differences between group D and any of groups A, B and C (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Modern rehabilitation training, traditional qigong training and integrative respiratory rehabilitation training programs all can improve the quality of life and exercise ability of COPD patients, and integrative respiratory rehabilitation training program is better than modern rehabilitation training and traditional qigong training programs. The efficacy of respiratory rehabilitation training is time-dependent, and need long-time adherence to the therapy.