Because of its low complication rate, favorable safety, cost-effectiveness, and technical ease, mono-instrumental, laparoscopy-assisted single-port appendectomy (SPA) has been the standard therapy for appendicitis in our department since its introduction 10 years ago. We report our experience with this technique and compare its outcome to open appendectomy (OA). The records of all children who ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the proportion of patients with axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) among those with chronic back pain and ≥1 of 3 SpA features in the US. METHODS The study was conducted at rheumatology practices in the US. Patients were required to have chronic back pain for ≥3 months beginning at <45 years of age, no prior SpA diagnosis, and ≥1 of the following 3 SpA features: HLA-B27 posi...

We evaluated the effect of voluntary exercise on spontaneous physical activity (SPA) and food consumption in mice from 4 replicate lines bred for 57 generations for high voluntary wheel running (HR) and from 4 non-selected control (C) lines. Beginning at ~24 days of age, mice were housed in standard cages or in cages with attached wheels. Wheel activity and SPA were monitored in 1-min intervals...

Combinatorial protein engineering provides powerful means for functional selection of novel binding proteins. One class of engineered binding proteins, denoted affibodies, is based on the three-helix scaffold of the Z domain derived from staphylococcal protein A. The Z(SPA-1) affibody has been selected from a phage-displayed library as a binder to protein A. Z(SPA-1) also binds with micromolar ...

BACKGROUND Emerging evidence indicates that accumulating physical activity in periods of less than 10 minutes, termed sporadic physical activity (SPA), has similar effects on health as a similar volume of bouted physical activity (BPA). The purpose of this study was to describe the volume and intensity of SPA in adults. METHODS Participants consisted of a representative sample of 6040 adults ...

Epidemiološke studije o spondiloartritisima (SpA) uključuju opise načina na koji se bolest javlja u populaciji, razine učestalosti bolesti: incidenciju i prevalenciju, komorbiditet, mortalitet, geografsku distribuciju i kliničke karakteristike kao i faktore rizika za pojavu bolesti. Etnički, genetski, okolišni čimbenici povezani su s pojavom i ekspresijom bolesti. Jasno razlikovanje među podsku...

The four-member SPA protein family of Arabidopsis acts in concert with the E3 ubiquitin ligase COP1 to suppress photomorphogenesis in dark-grown seedlings. Here, we demonstrate that SPA proteins are, moreover, essential for photoperiodic flowering. Mutations in SPA1 cause phyA-independent early flowering under short day (SD) but not long day (LD) conditions, and this phenotype is enhanced by ad...

Axial spondyloarthritis (Ax SpA) refers to chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases that mainly affect the axial skeleton, leading to erosions and new bone formation in the sacroiliac joints and/or the spine. Ax SpA includes the radiographic form of the disease, ie, ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and the nonradiographic Ax SpA (non-Rx Ax SpA) forms. Anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) agents a...

Spa therapy is frequently used in daily rheumatological practice, but its benefit remains to be evaluated. A prospective randomized controlled study was conducted in 1993 in patients with osteoarthritis of the hip, knee or lumbar spine. Treatment was either spa therapy at Vichy (France) of 3 weeks duration (spa group) or usual therapy (control group). Assessment criteria were pain (visual analo...

BACKGROUND In the broader spectrum of back pain, inflammatory back pain (IBP) is a symptom that may indicate axial spondyloarthritis (SpA). The objectives of this study were to determine the frequency of current IBP, as a hallmark sign of possible axial SpA, in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and other SpA and to compare self-reported health between the grou...