RESUMEN
Postural stability degrades with age, threating the health and life quality of the older adults. One Leg Stance (OLS) is one of the standard and commonly adopted assessments for postural stability, and the postural sway in OLS has been demonstrated to be related with age. The propagation of postural sway between body segments could be a hint to the underlying mechanism of balance control. However, it is not yet fully understood. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to study the angular sways and their propagation of the head, trunk, and lower limb in healthy older adults. A cross-correlation of the normalized angular speeds was performed and the experiment with 68 older adults was conducted. The results showed that the head, hip and ankle joints affected the transfer of angular sway with a relatively lower correlation and longer latency.
Asunto(s)
Pierna/fisiología , Equilibrio Postural/fisiología , Postura/fisiología , Anciano , Fenómenos Biomecánicos , Femenino , Humanos , MasculinoRESUMEN
The torsion of spleen on its vascular shank represents an uncommon problem, responsible of acute and chronic pain. The mobile spleen is fixed only through hilus vessels the gastrosplenic ligament. The incidence is unknow, greater in the male with an M:F ratio 6.1 in the first ten years of life, even if an episode of intrauterine torsion has been reported. The diagnosis can be performed with ultrasonography, angiography, scintigraphy and CT scan. There are reported two cases: male of 2.5 years female of 14 years who presented with recurrent pain to the left side, vomit diarrhoea and fever. Objectively a palpable mass was present. Ultrasonography and angio-CT scan of abdomen revealed splenomegaly, ptosis of the spleen and malrotation with signs of obstruction of the vessels. The treatment in both cases was splenectomy. The spleen appeared rotated on its shank and increased of volume, deprived of anatomical structures of fixation. The histological report confirmed the haemorrhagic infarction. The excessive mobility of the spleen, from insufficiency or absence of the ligamentous attachments is case of abdominal pain or acute abdomen, that can complicate with the infarction of the spleen. Angio-CT scan, in the cases here reported, has shown to greater sensibility in comparison to the ultrasonography. The Authors believe that the video-laparoscopic splenopexy, when the diagnosis is made of "wandering spleen" with painful repeated episodes, can be finalized, to the preservation of organ.
Asunto(s)
Abdomen Agudo/etiología , Enfermedades del Bazo/complicaciones , Adolescente , Preescolar , Femenino , Humanos , Laparotomía , Masculino , Radiografía Abdominal , Esplenectomía , Enfermedades del Bazo/diagnóstico por imagen , Enfermedades del Bazo/cirugía , Esplenomegalia/diagnóstico por imagen , Tomografía Computarizada por Rayos X , Anomalía Torsional , Resultado del Tratamiento , UltrasonografíaRESUMEN
From January 1988 to December 1999, 21 new born babies, 13 boys and 8 girls, with esophageal atresia (EA) and tracheosophageal fistula (TEF) were treated at Division of Pediatric Surgery in Foggia (Italy). At birth their weight ranged from 1.600 to 3.000 g, the gestional age ranged from 36 to 41 weeks. Five (23%) of them were premature, seven (58%) SGA, seventeen (80%) associated congenital anomalies. Complete surgical correction was performed in all patients. In three AE cases with wide-gap an azygos vein flap was used to strengthen the anastomosis under excessive tension. The pathogenetic factors involved in these complications such as leak, stricture (stenosis), recurrent TEF and gastro-esophageal reflux are (are taken into account) and analysed. No baby died owing to anastomatic complication. Survival rate was 100% in Montreal I and 83% in Montreal II. A new born baby died but his death was due to major associated conenital anomalies and not to surgical complications. The Authors believe that the azygos vein flap is a useful technique in the treatment of esophageal atresia wide-gap.
Asunto(s)
Atresia Esofágica/cirugía , Fístula Traqueoesofágica/cirugía , Femenino , Humanos , Recién Nacido , Masculino , Procedimientos Quirúrgicos Operativos/métodosRESUMEN
Passive noise-reducing earphone enclosures contain a supra-aural earphone mounted in a plastic dome. These enclosures are used to prevent the elevation of hearing thresholds due to masking from high levels of ambient noise. This research determined normal hearing threshold levels, threshold repeatability, and attenuation values for an Audiocup, Auraldome II, AudioMate, and Madsen ME-70 enclosure. In Study I hearing thresholds were obtained for 30 normally hearing adults from 500 to 6000 Hz in four test sessions for each enclosure and a supra-aural earphone attached to a headband. The hearing thresholds and repeatability for the Audiocup and Auraldome were similar but the thresholds were higher and repeatability was poorer for the AudioMate and Madsen ME-70 compared with the supra-aural earphone. In Study II real-ear attenuation values were obtained for each enclosure using 24 normally hearing subjects. The Audiocup and Auraldome II provided less low-frequency attenuation compared with the AudioMate and Madsen ME-70. The findings were related to the coupling of the supra-aural earphone in each enclosure to the ear and the coupling of each enclosure to the head. If an enclosure is used as an alternative to a supra-aural earphone for hearing testing in high ambient noise environments, hearing thresholds and threshold repeatability should be similar to a supra-aural earphone, and the enclosures should provide adequate attenuation of ambient noise. Since none of the enclosures met all of these requirements their use is not recommended for hearing testing.