Largest Single Problem Research Articles

Can Khan’s new method using MRI integrable to detect tibial plateau slope and depth as risk factors for anterior cruciate tear?

Context ACL injury continues to be the largest single problem in orthopedic sports medicine. MRI has become the prime diagnostic tool of the various knee pathological and anatomical variability conditions.

New combined method using MRI for the assessment of tibial plateau slope and depth as risk factors for anterior cruciate ligament injury in correlation with anterior cruciate ligament arthroscopic findings: does it correlate?

Background Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury continues to be the largest single problem in orthopaedic sports medicine. MRI has become the prime diagnostic tool for various pathological and anatomical variability conditions of the knee. Objectives The aim of this study was to test the integrity of the new combined method for the assessment of tibial plateau anatomic variables using conventional MRI. Settings and design This was a retrospective control study. Patients and methods Medial tibial plateau slope (MTPS), lateral tibial plateau slope (LTPS) and medial tibial plateau depth (MTPD) were evaluated in the ACL-injured group of patients ( n = 52) and the non-ACL-injured control group ( n = 33) using MRI scan. Inclusion criteria for the ACL-injured group, as surgically confirmed, were isolated ACL injury. However, inclusion criteria for the non-ACL-injured group were minor trauma, bruises, etc. Statistical analysis Statistical analysis was carried out using Student's t -test and intraclass correlation coefficient. A P value less than 0.05 was assigned as significant. Results Both male and female patients in the ACL-injured group showed increased LTPS in comparison with the control group ( P = 0.0197), with no significant difference in MTPS and MTPD ( P = 0.73 and 0.8, respectively). Steeper LTPS was detected in the male population of the patient group than in the control group ( P = 0.0001). Male participants from the control group had less steep MTPS ( P = 0.002) and LTPS ( P = 0.034) and deeper MTPD ( P = 0.004) compared with female participants of the control group. Conclusion We conclude that the combined method by Khan and colleagues using conventional MRI for the measurement of MTPS, LTPS and MTPD as risk factors for ACL injury is solid and reproducible. Level of evidence Diagnostic study level III.

The work of the Child Accident Prevention Trust.

In 1983 an article was published in this Journal describing the work of the Child Accident Prevention Trust. Since that time many developments have taken place in the field of child accident prevention. There has been an increased recognition of the role of accidents and injuries in child health and the importance of accident prevention at an international, national, and local level. This has, in part, been a result of work undertaken by the Child Accident Prevention Trust. Much remains to be done, however, and doctors and other health workers involved with children must recognise the part that they can play in reducing this epidemic. Mortality and morbidity from accidents is the largest single problem in the health of children after the first year of life. The aim of this article is to stimulate interest in the problem of accidents in childhood especially among community paediatricians and clinical medical officers. Hospital doctors and general practitioners also have a particular part to play in drawing the attention of appropriate authorities to factors which have led to accidents that may have been preventable (see Annotation in this issue).

Geothermal Development and Problems in South Dakota: ABSTRACT

Geothermal applications in South Dakota have been ongoing on a small scale since the early 1950s with a few additions in the 1960s. The real surge developed as a result of the oil embargo in 1973 and the efforts of ERDA and DOE. South Dakota started its first study in 1975. Application of hot water has focused primarily on the Madison Limestone as the main source of water due to wells already in the aquifer and some history from oil tests. Three feasibility studies and four demonstration projects have been funded by the federal government and one by the state government. In addition, three privately funded projects have begun. All but one project are for space heating of buildings, primarily state and municipal. The other project is for grain drying. To date, corrosion is the largest single problem, followed closely by scaling, and disposal of the spent fluid. Because of the quality of most of the waters tested to date, the disposal has been limited primarily to dumping into reservoirs from which it is used for irrigation or other conventional uses. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1331------------

Pathogenesis and Prognosis of Prematurity

DURING the past century a variety of factors have come together to reduce infant mortality and therefore to increase mean life expectancy in industrialized societies. As environmental factors such as infection and disturbances of nutrition have become less prominent causes of death and disability in the newborn infant, the relative role of factors less affected by environmental control has increased. Prematurity is the most frequently recurring factor now involved in infant death and morbidity. As such it has become the largest single problem in contemporary pediatrics and obstetrics, as well as one of the major public-health problems of the present . . .

Pathogenesis and prognosis of prematurity.

DURING the past century a variety of factors have come together to reduce infant mortality and therefore to increase mean life expectancy in industrialized societies. As environmental factors such as infection and disturbances of nutrition have become less prominent causes of death and disability in the newborn infant, the relative role of factors less affected by environmental control has increased. Prematurity is the most frequently recurring factor now involved in infant death and morbidity. As such it has become the largest single problem in contemporary pediatrics and obstetrics, as well as one of the major public-health problems of the present . . .

Vitreous changes produced by cataract surgery. A study of 1,058 aphakic eyes.

The largest single problem in cataract surgery today is related to complications induced by postoperative morphologic changes in the vitreous. These include persistent corneal edema, macular disturbance, pupillary block, and detachment of the retina. To obtain a better picture of the changes which occur in the vitreous body following cataract surgery, a careful postoperative study of 1,058 eyes was undertaken. All patients were from our private practice. After intracapsular lens extraction, the anterior hyaloid membrane, at the level of the patellar fossa, loses its support (lens and zonule). Previously concave, it is now convex. However, there are cases where the membrane remains behind the level of the iris retaining a posterior chamber of sorts. The membrane has the appearance of an opalescent sheet on whose surface are found pigment deposits and small white spots derived from organization of exudate. The latter are the residues of the slight inflammatory reactions accompanying