Hoganthorpe0808
This is the first German evidence- and consensus-based clinical guideline on diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up on germ cell tumours (GCTs) of the testis in adult patients. We present the guideline content in two publications. Part I covers the topic's background, methods, epidemiology, classification systems, diagnostics, prognosis, and treatment recommendations for the localized stages.
An interdisciplinary panel of 42 experts including 1 patient representative developed the guideline content. Clinical recommendations and statements were based on scientific evidence and expert consensus. For this purpose, evidence tables for several review questions, which were based on systematic literature searches (last search was in March 2018) were provided. Thirty-one experts entitled to vote, rated the final clinical recommendations and statements.
We provide 161 clinical recommendations and statements. We present information on the quality of cancer care and epidemiology and give recommendations for staging athe referral of selected patients to centres with proven experience can help achieve favourable clinical outcomes.
Although GCT is a rare tumour entity with excellent survival rates for the localized stages, its management requires an interdisciplinary approach, including several clinical experts. Quality of care is highly related to institutional expertise and can be reassured by established online-based second-opinion boards. There are very few studies on diagnostics with good level of evidence. Treatment of metastatic GCTs must be tailored to the risk according to the International Germ Cell Cancer Collaboration Group classification after careful diagnostic evaluation. An interdisciplinary approach as well as the referral of selected patients to centres with proven experience can help achieve favourable clinical outcomes.
Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a syndrome featuring acute anterograde amnesia as the most striking clinical symptom. Its etiology is still a matter of debate. Most neurological guidelines allow the diagnosis on the basis of clinical criteria only; a more extensive evaluation is recommended only for patients with "red flags" like severe headache, nausea or vomiting, or metabolic abnormalities. The aim of our study was to assess the frequency of a severe underlying disease or alternative diagnoses (mimics) in patients fulfilling the clinical criteria.
We evaluated the medical records and the imaging data of an unselected consecutive cohort of patients with suspected TGA over a 7-year period. All patients were hospitalized and received a neurological workup including brain imaging, color-coded duplex sonography of the brain supplying arteries, electroencephalography, and laboratory studies of blood and (in selected cases) cerebrospinal fluid.
163 patients with 166 episodes of suspected TGA were hospitaltting of a stroke unit, as ischemic stroke was the by far most important diagnosis mimicking TGA.
As approximately every tenth patient with suspected TGA either had an alternative diagnosis or a severe comorbidity, which had not been obvious at the time of admission, we consider in-patient treatment of all suspected TGA cases as appropriate, preferably in the setting of a stroke unit, as ischemic stroke was the by far most important diagnosis mimicking TGA.Normal human bone marrow cells are critical for studies of hematopoiesis and as controls to assess toxicity. As cells from commercial vendors are expensive, many laboratories resort to cancer-free bone marrow specimens obtained during staging or to umbilical cord blood cells, which may be abnormal or reflect a much younger age group compared to the disease samples under study. We piloted the use of femoral heads as an alternative and inexpensive source of normal bone marrow. Femoral heads were obtained from 21 successive patients undergoing elective hip arthroplasty. Mononuclear cells (MNCs) were purified with Ficoll, and CD3+, CD14+, and CD34+ cells were purified with antibody-coated microbeads. The median yield of MNCs was 8.95 × 107 (range, 1.62 × 105-2.52 × 108), and the median yield of CD34+ cells was 1.40 × 106 (range, 3.60 × 105-9.90 × 106). Results of downstream applications including qRT-PCR, colony-forming assays, and ex vivo proliferation analysis were of high quality and comparable to those obtained with standard bone marrow aspirates. We conclude that femoral heads currently discarded as medical waste are a cost-efficient source of bone marrow cells for research use.
While peak in- and expiratory flow rates offer valuable information for diagnosis and monitoring in respiratory disease, these indices are usually considered too variable to be routinely used for quantification in clinical practice.
The aim of the study was to obtain reproducible measurements of maximal inspiratory flow rates and to construct reference equations for peak in- and expiratory flows (PIF and PEF).
With coaching for maximal effort, 187 healthy Caucasian subjects (20-80 years) performed at least 3 combined forced inspiratory and expiratory manoeuvres, until at least 2 peak inspiratory flow measurements were within 10% of each other. ML385 in vivo The effect on PIF preceded by a slow expiration instead of a forced expiration and PIF repeatability over 3 different days was also investigated in subgroups. Reference values and limits of normal for PIF, mid-inspiratory flow, and PEF were obtained according to the Lambda-Mu-Sigma statistical method.
A valid PIF could be obtained within 3.3 ± 0.6(SD) attempts, outine clinical practice.
Phenobarbitone induces suppression of cerebral electrical activity on amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE); however, its effect during therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has not been well characterized.
To evaluate the effect of phenobarbitone on aEEG in neonates with HIE undergoing TH.
Thirty-five neonates born at ≥350 weeks gestational age (GA), who received phenobarbitone as first-line antiepileptic drug during TH for ≥ Sarnat stage II HIE with aEEG recordings were retrospectively studied. Background pattern, upper and lower margin voltages were characterized for a 30-min period before and 30-60 min after phenobarbitone administration. Primary outcome was presence of severely abnormal aEEG pattern after phenobarbitone administration.
Mean (±SD) GA and median birth weight were 38.2 ± 1.9 weeks and 3.1 (2.5-3.9) kg, respectively. Phenobarbitone (10-20 mg/kg), administered at median age 16.8 h, was associated with background pattern worsening in 19/29 (65.