background: driver fatigue is one of the major implications in transportation safety and accounted for up to 40% of road accidents. this study aimed to analyze the eeg alpha power changes in partially sleep-deprived drivers while performing a simulated driving task. methods: twelve healthy male car drivers participated in an overnight study. continuous eeg and eog records were taken during driv...

background several nonsurgical and surgical treatment modalities are available for patients with chronic coccydynia, with controversial results. extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ecswt) is effective in the treatment of many musculoskeletal disorders; however, it has not been tested for chronic coccydynia. objectives we performed the current study to determine the effects of ecswt on pain in pa...

Delivering an injection correctly into the small diamater lumen of a tubular biological structure placed under the skin and not visible to the eye presents difficulties in medical practice. Suitable assist devices are currently not available. A new concept has been formulated to combine four modes of nonradiological imaging: scanning electrical impedance plethysmography; ultrasound; transillumi...

There is a widespread belief that subjective accounts of disease are key components of measures of disease severity and quality of life. In the present study we have set out to test this hypothesis using visual analogue scales (VAS) for itch, as a subjective measure, and actigraphy as an objective measure. One-hundred and seventeen itchy children and adults (and 25 controls) were studied for cl...

CFTR mutations enhance susceptibility for idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (ICP) and congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD); however, it is unknown why CFTR heterozygotes are at increased disease risk. We recently showed that common CFTR variants are associated with aberrantly spliced transcripts. Here, we genotyped for common CFTR variants and tested for associations in two IC...

The vas deferens, a muscular conduit conveying spermatozoa from the epididymis to the urethra, has been used as a model tissue for smooth muscle pharmacological and physiological advancements. Many drugs, notably α-adrenergic antagonists, have effects on contractility and thus normal ejaculation, incurring significant side effects for patients that may interfere with compliance. A more thorough...

Repair of congenital groin hernia/hydrocele and orchidopexy for the undescended testis are the most common surgical procedure performed by pediatric surgeons. Up to 1% of all men have been reported to have a congenital unilateral absence of the vas deferens (CUAVD).1 Previous studies have suggested that ipsilateral renal anomalies are present in up to 91% of men with a congenital unilateral abs...

If values that we monitor changes during discrete periods (for example, in discrete time intervals), the formula above leads to a difference equation or a dynamical system. In this case, we are dealing with a function that depends on discrete integer values – a sequence. Recall that a sequence of real numbers (indexed by nonnegative integers) can be given by listing its terms (for example, 1, 1...

OBJECTIVES To assess and compare the self-perceived Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of multimorbid patients and the general population using health utilities (HU) and visual analogue scale (VAS) methods. METHODS We analyzed data (n = 888) from a national, cross-sectional Swiss study of multimorbid patients recruited in primary care settings. Self-perceived HRQoL was assessed using the ...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether minimum clinically significant difference in visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score varies according to the severity of pain reported. METHOD Prospective descriptive study of adult patients in an urban emergency department (ED). On presentation to the ED, patients marked the level of their pain on a 100 mm, non-hatched VAS scale. At 20 minute intervals thereafte...