High rate of clinically relevant improvement following anatomical total shoulder arthroplasty for glenohumeral osteoarthritis

BACKGROUND The minimal clinically important difference(MCID)is defined as the smallest meaningful change in a health domain that a patient would identify as important.Thus,an improvement that exceeds the MCID can be used to define a successful treatment for the individual patient.AIM To quantify the rate of clinical improvement following anatomical total shoulder arthroplasty for glenohumeral osteoarthritis.METHODS Patients were treated with the Global Unite total shoulder platform arthroplasty between March 2017 and February 2019 at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital,Denmark.The patients were evaluated preoperatively and 3 months,6 months,12 months,and 24 months postoperatively using the Western Ontario Osteoarthritis of the Shoulder index(WOOS),Oxford Shoulder Score(OSS)and Constant-Murley Score(CMS).The rate of clinically relevant improvement was defined as the proportion of patients who had an improvement 24 months postoperatively that exceeded the MCID.Based on previous literature,MCID for WOOS,OSS,and CMS were defined as 12.3,4.3,and 12.8 respectively.RESULTS Forty-nine patients with a Global Unite total shoulder platform arthroplasty were included for the final analysis.Mean age at the time of surgery was 66 years(range 49.0-79.0,SD:8.3)and 65%were women.One patient was revised within the two years follow-up.The mean improvement from the preoperative assessment to the two-year follow-up was 46.1 points[95%confidence interval(95%CI):39.7-53.3,P<0.005]for WOOS,18.2 points(95%CI:15.5-21.0,P<0.005)for OSS and 37.8 points(95%CI:31.5-44.0,P<0.005)for CMS.Two years postoperatively,41 patients(87%)had an improvement in WOOS that exceeded the MCID,45 patients(94%)had an improvement in OSS that exceeded the MCID,and 42 patients(88%)had an improvement in CMS that exceeded the MCID.CONCLUSION Based on three shoulder-specific outcome measures we find that approximately 90%of patients has a clinically relevant improvement.This is a clear message when informing patients about their prognosis.

The minimal clinically important difference for gait speed in significant unilateral vestibular hypofunction after vestibular rehabilitation

Gait speed is a valid measure of both physical function and vestibular health.Vestibular rehabilitation is useful to improve gait speed for patients with vestibular hypofunction,yet there is little data to indicate how changes in gait speed reflect changes in patient-reported health outcomes.We determined the minimal clinically important difference in the gait speed of patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction,mostly due to deafferentation surgery,as anchored to the Dizziness Handicap Index and the Activities Balance Confidence scale,validated using regression analysis,change difference,receiveroperator characteristic curve,and average change methods.After six weeks of vestibular rehabilitation,a change in gait speed from 0.20 to 0.34 m/s with 95%confidence was required for the patients to perceive a significant reduction in perception of dizziness and improved balance confidence.

The most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology Question 2-5.Obesity-related cancers:more questions than answers

Obesity is recognized as the second highest risk factor for cancer. The pathogenic mechanisms underlying tobaccorelated cancers are well characterized and efective programs have led to a decline in smoking and related cancers, but there is a global epidemic of obesity without a clear understanding of how obesity causes cancer. Obesity is heterogeneous, and approximately 25% of obese individuals remain healthy(metabolically healthy obese, MHO), so which fat deposition(subcutaneous versus visceral, adipose versus ectopic) is "malignant"? What is the mechanism of carcinogenesis? Is it by metabolic dysregulation or chronic inflammation? Through which chemokines/genes/signaling pathways does adipose tissue influence carcinogenesis? Can selective inhibition of these pathways uncouple obesity from cancers? Do all obesity related cancers(ORCs) share a molecular signature? Are there common(overlapping) genetic loci that make individuals susceptible to obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cancers? Can we identify precursor lesions of ORCs and will early intervention of high risk individuals alter the natural history? It appears unlikely that the obesity epidemic will be controlled anytime soon; answers to these questions will help to reduce the adverse efect of obesity on human condition.

The most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology

Specific research foci:(1) Mouse models of gamma-herpes virus-68(γHV-68) and polyomavirus(Py V) infections during neonatal versus adult life.(2) For human papilloma virus(HPV)-positive oropharyngeal carcinoma(OPC)—(a) Asking the question: Is oral sex a powerful carcinogen?(b) Examining the evidence for the vertical transmission of HPV infection.(c) Examining the relationship between HPV and Epstein–Barr virus(EBV) infections and nasopharyngeal cancer(NPC) in West European, East European, and East Asian countries.(d) Examining the association between HPVpositive OPC and human leukocyte antigen(HLA).(3) For non-smoking East Asian female lung adenocarcinoma—(a) Examining the incidence trends of HPV-positive OPC and female lung adenocarcinoma according to birth cohorts.(b) Examining the association between female lung adenocarcinoma and HPV.(c) Examining the associations of lung adenocarcinoma with immune modulating factors.(4) For triple-negative breast carcinoma(TNBC) in East Asians—(a) Examining the association between TNBC and HPV.(b) Examining the unique epidemiological characteristics of patients with TNBC. A summary "epidemiological" model tying some of these findings together.

Is Manipulative Therapy Clinically Necessary for Relief of Neck Pain？A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective：To summarize and critically assess the efficacy of Eastern and Western manipulative therapies for the treatment of neck pain in adults. Methods：A search of Pub Med/MEDLINE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Clinical Trials.gov, EMBASE, etc. from their inception date to January 2014 with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean databases. Two reviewers independently selected randomized controlled trials（RCTs） with negative control or blank control, extracted data and assessed methodological quality. Meta-analysis and levels of evidence were performed by Revman5.1 and Grades of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation（GRADE） approach. Results：Nineteen clinical trials with adequate randomization were included in this review, 11 of them had a low risk of bias. The primary outcome for shortterm pain had no significant differences, however, the secondary outcome, only the Numerical Pain Rating Scale（NPRS） score of intermediate-term [n=916, pooled mean differences（MD） =–0.29, P=0.02], the Neck Disability Index（NDI） score of short-term（n=1,145, pooled MD=–2.10, P〈0.01）, and intermediate-term（n=987, pooled MD=–1.45, P=0.01） were significantly reduced with moderate quality evidence. However, it supported the minimally clinically important difference（MCID） of the Visual Analogue Scale and NPRS pain score to be 13 mm, while NDI was 3.5 points. The meta-analysis only suggested a trend in favor of manipulative therapy rather than clinical significance. Conclusions：The results do not support the existing evidences for the clinical value of Eastern or Western manipulative therapy for neck pain of short-term follow-up according to MCIDs. The limitations of our review related to blinding, allocation concealment and small sample size.

Interval estimation for minimal clinically important difference and its classification error via a bootstrap scheme

With the improved knowledge on clinical relevance and more convenient access to the patientreported outcome data,clinical researchers prefer to adopt minimal clinically important difference(MCID)rather than statistical significance as a testing standard to examine the effectiveness of certain intervention or treatment in clinical trials.A practical method to determining the MCID is based on the diagnostic measurement.By using this approach,the MCID can be formulated as the solution of a large margin classification problem.However,this method only produces the point estimation,hence lacks ways to evaluate its performance.In this paper,we introduce an m-out-of-n bootstrap approach which provides the interval estimations for MCID and its classification error,an associated accuracy measure for performance assessment.A variety of extensive simulation studies are implemented to show the advantages of our proposed method.Analysis of the chondral lesions and meniscus procedures(ChAMP)trial is our motivating example and is used to illustrate our method.

Effect of Shenshao Tablet(参芍片) on the Quality of Life for Coronary Heart Disease Patients with Stable Angina Pectoris

Objective： To observe the effect of Chinese medicine Shenshao Tablet （参芍片, SST） on the quality of life in coronary heart disease （CHD） patients with stable angina pectoris （SAP）. Methods： Sixty-six patients with SAP confirmed by coronary angiography were enrolled and assigned to two groups by means of PROC PLAN using a SAS 6.12 software in a double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled design. Patients in the treated group were treated with SST, and the others in the control group were given placebo. The weekly angina frequency, quality of life scale [Seattle Angina Questionnaire （SAQ）] and incidence of important clinical events were observed to evaluate the intervention effect of SST on the quality of life for CHD patients with SAP. Results： During the study, one case dropped out in the treated group and two cases in the control group, respectively, and 63 cases including 32 cases in the treated group, and 31 cases in the control group completed the trial. After four weeks of treatment, the weekly angina frequency of the treated group （5.32± 2.46 times per week） was significantly less than that of the control group （7.32± 3.20 times per week, P 〈 0.05）. The total score of the quality of life in the treated group （71.30± 5.44） was obviously higher than that in the control group （63.50± 4.60, P 〈 0.01）, and the angina stability, angina frequency, and treatment satisfaction were significantly superior to those in the control group （P〈 0.01）. The incidence of important clinical events of the treated group （3.1%） was lower than that of the control group （6.5%） during the six-month follow-up period, but the difference was insignificant （P 〉 0.05）. Conclusion： SST could lower the angina frequency and greatly improve the quality of life in CHD patients with SAP.

Effect of Yiqi Yangyin Decoction(益气养阴方) on the Quality of Life of Patients with Unstable Angina Pectoris

Objective： To observe the effect of Yiqi Yangyin Decoction （益气养阴方, YQYYD） on the quality of life （QOL） of patients with unstable angina pectoris （UAP）. Methods： A total of 108 patients with UAP of qi-yin deficiency syndrome confirmed by coronary angiography were enrolled and assigned to the treated group （treated with YQYYD and conventional therapy of Western medicine） and the control group （treated with conventional therapy of Western medicine）, by the use of the PROC PLAN of the SAS 6.12 software, in a prospective, randomized, controlled design. The clinical total effective rate, symptom score, QOL scale [Seattle Angina Questionnaire （SAQ）] and incidence of important clinical events were defined as the observation indices to evaluate the interventional effect of YQYYD on the QOL of patients with UAP of the qi-yin deficiency syndrome. Results： During the study, three cases dropped out in the treated group, one case dropped out in the control group, and 104 cases, including 51 cases in the treatment group and 53 cases in the control group, finished the trial. After four weeks of treatment, the total clinical effective rates in the treated group and the control group were 80.4% and 75.5% respectively, and there was no obvious difference between them （P〉0.05）. However, the symptom score of the treated group （9.31 ± 2.02） was significantly lesser than that of the control group （11.62 ± 3.04, P〈0.05）, and the total score of the QOI scale of the treated group （68.76 ± 5.74） was significantly higher than that of the control group （61.06 ±3.31, P〈0.01）. Among those in the treated group physical limitation, angina stability, angina frequency, and treatment satisfaction were significantly ameliorated when compared with the control group after treatment （P〈0.05, P〈0.01）. The incidence of important clinical events in the treated group （3.9%） was lower than that in the control group （5.7%） during the 8-month follow-up period, but the difference was insignificant （P〉0.05）. Conclusion： YQYYD could improve the clinical symptoms of patients with UAP of qi-yin deficiency syndrome and greatly improve their QOL.