Torresbuchanan7139

The Test of Masticating and Swallowing Solids (TOMASS) is an international standardized swallowing assessment tool. However, its psychometric characteristics have not been analysed in patients with dysphagia.

To analyse TOMASS's (1) inter- and intra-rater reliability in a clinical population of patients with dysphagia, (2) known-group validity, (3) concurrent validity and (4) correlation with meal duration.

Two age- and gender-matched groups of 39 participants each were recruited A group of patients with dysphagia and a control group with no history of dysphagia. The TOMASS was carried out in both populations, video-recorded and scored offline by two speech and language therapists (SLT 1 and SLT 2) (inter-rater reliability) and twice by the same SLT (intra-rater reliability). In the clinical group, the TOMASS was carried out three times (1) to verify understanding of the required tasks, (2) performed concurrently during fibreoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) to assess validity and (3) dur and oral phase of solids. The TOMASS' reliability and validity were tested on healthy subjects and normative data were gained. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The study provides the first data on the validity and reliability of the TOMASS in a clinical population. The TOMASS was proved to be a reliable and valid tool also in patients with dysphagia and to distinguish between patients with dysphagia and healthy subjects. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The use of the TOMASS in clinical practice is recommended as a valid and reliable tool to quantitatively measure the ingestion of solid in patients with dysphagia.Enzyme-catalysed site-specific protein modifications enable the precision manufacture of conjugates for the study of protein function and/or for therapeutic or diagnostic applications. Asparaginyl ligases are a class of highly efficient transpeptidases with the capacity to modify proteins bearing only a tripeptide recognition motif. Herein, we review the types of protein modification that are accessible using these enzymes, including N- and C-terminal protein labelling, head-to-tail cyclisation, and protein-protein conjugation. We describe the progress that has been made to engineer highly efficient ligases as well as efforts to chemically manipulate the enzyme reaction to favour product formation. These enzymes are powerful additions to the protein engineer's toolbox.

Supragastric belching (SGB) and rumination are behavioral disorders associated with proton pump inhibitor (PPI) non-response and can be diagnosed using multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH (MII-pH) and post-prandial high-resolution impedance manometry (PPHRIM). This pilot study compared diagnostic yield and inter-rater agreement for SGB and rumination using MII-pH and PPHRIM.

Three esophageal physiologists performed blinded interpretations of MII-pH and PPHRIM in 22 PPI non-responders. Raters selected from 4 diagnostic impressions (normal, GERD, behavioral disorders, GERD+behavioral disorders) without clinical context. Primary outcomes were diagnostic impressions compared against clinical gold standard impression, between raters, and between test modalities. Following a 28-month wash-out period, raters re-interpreted MII-pH with clinical context and under consensus definition of diagnostic criteria.

Compared to gold standard, rater accuracy for presence of behavioral disorders ranged from 45 to 77% onntifying behavioral disorders on MII-pH and PPHRIM has implications for clinical evaluation of PPI non-response; clinical context is essential for accurate study interpretation. Further work is needed to standardize definitions and interpretations.

Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) with cisplatin is beneficial to patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with sorafenib. This study aimed to examine the effect of HAIC with cisplatin before radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in patients with HCC.

This was a multicenter, single-blinded, randomized controlled study (UMIN000007267). Early-stage HCC patients were randomly assigned (11) to receive HAIC with cisplatin before RFA therapy (HAIC group) or RFA monotherapy (non-HAIC group). The primary end-point was recurrence-free survival. Efficacy analysis and safety analysis followed the intention-to-treat principle.

Between August 2012 and July 2016, 74 patients were recruited. A total of 70 eligible patients were randomly assigned to the HAIC group (n=35) and non-HAIC group (n=35). Recurrence-free survival rates at 1 (3)year in the HAIC group and non-HAIC group were 82.9% (54.3%) and 74.3% (34.3%), respectively (hazard ratio [HR], 0.597; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.320-1.091; p=0.094]. Subgroup analysis showed that the beneficial effect of HAIC was observed in patients with a single nodule and Child-Pugh score 5. Intrahepatic distant recurrence-free survival rate in the HAIC group was significantly better than that in the non-HAIC group (HR, 0.468; 95% CI, 0.235-0.896; p=0.022). Adverse events were observed in just two patients in the HAIC group (6%) - grade2 cholecystitis and grade2 hyperkalemia.

HAIC with cisplatin before RFA did not significantly decrease recurrence in patients with early-stage HCC. Tamoxifen However, it might be effective in preventing intrahepatic distant recurrence.

HAIC with cisplatin before RFA did not significantly decrease recurrence in patients with early-stage HCC. However, it might be effective in preventing intrahepatic distant recurrence.Tropical mountains harbor globally significant levels of biodiversity and endemism. Climate change threatens many tropical montane species, yet little research has assessed the effects of climate change on the demographic rates of tropical species, particularly in the Afrotropics. Here, we report on the demographic rates of 21 Afrotropical bird species over 30 years in montane forests in Tanzania. We used mark-recapture analyses to model rates of population growth, recruitment, and apparent survival as functions of annual mean temperature and annual precipitation. For over one-half of focal species, decreasing population growth rates were associated with increasing temperature. Due to the trend in temperature over time, we substituted a time covariate for the temperature covariate in top-ranked population growth rate models. Temperature was a better explanatory covariate than time for 6 of the 12 species, or 29% of all focal species. Population growth rates were also lower for species found further below their elevational midpoint and for smaller-bodied species.