The effect of a spinal thrust manipulation's audible pop on brain wave activity: a quasi-experimental repeated measure design.

Introduction: High velocity thrust manipulation is commonly used when managing joint dysfunctions. Often, these thrust maneuvers will elicit an audible pop. It has been unclear what conclusively causes this audible sound and its clinical meaningfulness. This study sought to identify the effect of the audible pop on brainwave activity directly following a prone T7 thrust manipulation in asymptomatic/healthy subjects. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental repeated measure study design in which 57 subjects completed the study protocol. Brain wave activity was measured with the Emotiv EPOC+, which collects data with a frequency of 128 HZ and has 14 electrodes. Testing was performed in a controlled environment with minimal electrical interference (as measured with a Gauss meter), temperature variance, lighting variance, sound pollution, and other variable changes that could have influenced or interfered with pure EEG data acquisition. After accommodation each subject underwent a prone T7 posterior-anterior thrust manipulation. Immediately after the thrust manipulation the brainwave activity was measured for 10 seconds. Results: The non-audible group (N = 20) consisted of 55% males, and the audible group (N = 37) consisted of 43% males. The non-audible group EEG data revealed a significant change in brain wave activity under some of the electrodes in the frontal, parietal, and the occipital lobes. In the audible group, there was a significant change in brain wave activity under all electrodes in the frontal lobes, the parietal lobe, and the occipital lobes but not the temporal lobes. Conclusion: The audible sounds caused by a thoracic high velocity thrust manipulation did not affect the activity in the audible centers in the temporal brain region. The results support the hypothesis that thrust manipulation with or without audible sound results in a generalized relaxation immediately following the manipulation. The absence of a significant difference in brainwave activity in the frontal lobe in this study might indicate that the audible pop does not produce a "placebo" mechanism.

Impact of deprivation on glycaemic control in youth with type 1 diabetes in the southwestern region of France.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this multicenter cross-sectional study was to determine predictors of poor glycaemic control in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), particularly with respect to socioeconomic status (SES). METHODS: Our study population consisted of 1154 children who attended T1DM follow-up consultation with a pediatric diabetes specialist. Clinical and demographic data were retrieved retrospectively from patients' records. Individual deprivation was defined by an EPICES (Evaluation of the Deprivation and Inequalities of Health in Healthcare Centers) score ≥ 30. Patients were assigned to quintiles of the European Deprivation Index (EDI) based on their area deprivation scores. We used multivariable linear regression models to detect potential associations between glycaemic control and indicators of low SES. RESULTS: In total, 33% (n = 376) of patients had an EPICES score ≥ 30 and 23% (n = 268) were in the 5th EDI quintile. Multivariable linear regression analysis showed that poor glycaemic control was associated with both individual (ß 0.38; 95%CI 0.26-0.5; p < 0.001) and area deprivation (ß 0.26; 95%CI 0.08-0.43; p = 0.004). Demographic factors, body mass index (BMI) and insulin regimen were also independently associated with poor glycaemic control (p < 0.001). Interestingly, access to diabetes technologies was not related to SES or either glycaemic control. CONCLUSION: Low SES is associated with a higher risk of poor glycaemic control, independently of insulin regimen. BMI, age at the time of consultation, duration of diabetes, and insulin regimen. Also have an impact on HbA1c. These parameters need to be considered when developing novel treatment strategies for children with T1DM to better target at-risk patients.

Prognostic significance of venous tumour thrombus consistency in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

OBJECTIVES: To identify the prognostic impact of venous tumour thrombus (VTT) in locally advanced renal cell carcinomas (RCCs). To further differentiate the clinical course of patients with VTT who have similar clinicopathological characteristics. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We determined the VTT consistency (solid vs friable) in a retrospective cohort of 200 patients with RCC who had undergone nephrectomy between 1994 and 2011. We examined the correlation of VTT consistency in these patients with clinical and pathological variables. RESULTS: A total of 65% of the patients had solid VTT and 35% had friable VTT, which has a significantly lower amount of cell-cell adhesion molecules and connective tissue than solid VTT. We found that friable VTT was associated with advanced pT stage, higher VTT level, papillary RCC subtype and a lower age. Patients with friable VTT had a significantly shorter median overall survival than those with solid VTT (29 vs 89 months), but VTT consistency was not found to be an independent predictor of patients' survival in the multivariate Cox analysis. We found that VTT consistency was an independent significant predictor of overall survival in patients without evidence of distant and nodal metastases (N = 119). CONCLUSIONS: The VTT consistency is caused by the tumour and not by different surgical handling. Friable VTT is an important adverse prognostic predictor of overall survival in patients with non-metastatic RCC.