OBJECTIVE To determine clinical and radiological factors that predict the successful outcome of percutaneous disc decompression (PDD) in patients with lumbar herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP). METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and radiological features of patients who underwent lumbar PDD from April 2009 to March 2013. Sixty-nine patients with lumbar HNP were studied. Clinical o...

The performance of two screening instruments for pervasive developmental disorders was studied in the total population of children and adolescents with mental retardation between 4 and 18 years (N=1059) in Friesland, a northern province of the Netherlands. Parents completed the ABC, staff completed the PDD-MRS. The screening instruments were related to the ADI-R and ADOS for 184 participants. T...

The interrelationship between the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic (ADOS-G) and clinical classification was studied in 184 children and adolescents with Mental Retardation (MR). The agreement between the ADI-R and ADOS-G was fair, with a substantial difference between younger and older children (5-8 vs. 8+ years). Compared with the Diag...

The aim of this study was to clarify the features of mental development and autistic behavior in children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) from the viewpoint of remedial therapy. The Tokyo Child Development Schedule (TCDS) and the Tokyo Autistic Behavior Scale (TABS), designed to be completed by children’s caregivers, were used. A comparison was made of 36 children with PDD, 36 chil...

We followed 74 children with autistic disorder (AD) and 39 children with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD NOS) for 17-38 years in a record linkage study. Rates of disability pension award, marital status, criminality and mortality were compared between groups. Disability pension award was the only outcome measure that differed significantly between the AD and PDD NO...

AIM Defined daily doses (DDD) are used to analyse drug utilisation. For frequently prescribed drug groups, we studied to what extent the DDD correspond to the average prescribed daily doses (PDD). METHODS We analysed all drugs prescribed for more than three months to insured of a large health insurance fund in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, one federal state in Germany. PDD for plain ACE inhibitors,...

CONTEXT Controversy exists regarding the therapeutic benefit and cost effectiveness of photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) with 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) or hexyl aminolevulinate (HAL) in addition to white-light cystoscopy (WLC) in the management of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). OBJECTIVE To systematically evaluate evidence regarding the therapeutic benefits and economic considerat...

OBJECTIVE Changes in autism diagnostic criteria found in DSM-5 may affect autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence, research findings, diagnostic processes, and eligibility for clinical and other services. Using our published, total-population Korean prevalence data, we compute DSM-5 ASD and social communication disorder (SCD) prevalence and compare them with DSM-IV pervasive developmental dis...

CONTEXT New developments in optical diagnostics have a potential for less invasive and improved detection of bladder cancer. OBJECTIVE To provide an overview of the technology and diagnostic yield of recently developed optical diagnostics for bladder cancer and to outline their potential future applications. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION A PubMed literature search was performed, and papers on Raman ...