The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the efficacy of kinesio tape and physical therapy modalities in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome. Patients (n = 55) were treated with kinesio tape (n = 30) three times by intervals of 3 days or a daily program of local modalities (n = 25) for 2 weeks. Response to treatment was evaluated with the Disability of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand scale. Patients were questioned for the night pain, daily pain, and pain with motion. Outcome measures except for the Disability of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand scale were assessed at baseline, first, and second weeks of the treatment. Disability of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand scale was evaluated only before and after the treatment. Disability of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand scale and visual analog scale scores decreased significantly in both treatment groups as compared with the baseline levels. The rest, night, and movement median pain scores of the kinesio taping (20, 40, and 50, respectively) group were statistically significantly lower (p values were 0.001, 0.01, and 0.001, respectively) at the first week examination as compared with the physical therapy group (50, 70, and 70, respectively). However, there was no significant difference in the same parameters between two groups at the second week (0.109, 0.07, and 0.218 for rest, night, and movement median pain scores, respectively). Disability of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand scale scores of the kinesio taping group were significantly lower at the second week as compared with the physical therapy group. No side effects were observed. Kinesio tape has been found to be more effective than the local modalities at the first week and was similarly effective at the second week of the treatment. Kinesio taping may be an alternative treatment option in the treatment of shoulder impingement syndrome especially when an immediate effect is needed.

No abstract

Polycythemia vera is a myeloproliferative disorder associated with the thromboembolic events. Normalization of the hematocrit and elevated platelet counts is obligatory to reduce the thrombotic risk of patients with PV. Therapeutic strategies include phlebotomy, myelosuppressive agents, and, more recently, interferon-alpha. In addition, appropriate antiplatelet therapy should be administered to prevent life-threatening complications and reducing the viscosity of the blood. Although aspirin is widely preferred in such patients, this monodrug therapy or combined with clopidogrel as an alternative approach might not be enough, especially after coronary artery surgery. Therefore, warfarin should be added to anticoagulant therapy. This short report describes the use of warfarin, associated with aspirin and clopidogrel as an anticoagulant regimen after coronary artery bypass surgery in two cases with polycythemia vera. We believe that a combination of warfarin with other oral antiplatelet agents may be more effective in preventing the coronary artery bypass graft thrombosis.

All treatment groups were effective in wound healing and decreasing the MRSA counts. MRSA + PRP combined created identical inflammation scores to the PRP group. More in vivo studies are required to corroborate these findings.

Findings suggest a link between enhanced netrin-1 expression in EAT and macrophage infiltration and polarization in patients with CAD.

The results show that the efficacy of CAT application increases with training. Further studies are required to investigate the reasons underlying application failures. This single group prospective randomised study involves level of evidence 4.

IntroductionChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has traditionally been recognised as a predictor of poorer early outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of different COPD stages, as defined by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) spirometric criteria, on the early surgical outcomes in patients undergoing primary isolated non-emergency CABGMethodsBetween January 2008 and April 2012, 1 737 consecutive patients underwent isolated CABG in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of Gulhane Military Academy of Medicine; 127 patients with the diagnosis of moderate-risk COPD were operated on. Only 104 patients with available pulmonary function tests and no missing data were included in the study. Two different treatment protocols had been used before and after 2010. Before 2010, no treatment was applied to patients with moderate COPD before the CABG procedure. After 2010, a pre-treatment protocol was initiated. Patients who had undergone surgery between 2008 and 2010 were placed in group 1 (no pre-treatment, n = 51) and patients who had undergone surgery between 2010 and 2012 comprised group 2 (pre-treatment group, n = 53). These two groups were compared according to the postoperative morbidity and mortality rates retrospectively, from medical reports.ResultsThe mean ages of the patients in both groups were 62.1 ± 7.6 and 64.5 ± 6.4 years, respectively. Thirty-nine of the patients in group 1 and 38 in group 2 were male. There were similar numbers of risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, renal disease (two patients in each group), previous stroke and myocardial infarction in both groups. The mean ejection fractions of the patients were 53.3 ± 11.5% and 50.2 ± 10.8%, respectively. Mean EuroSCOREs of the patients were 5.5 ± 2.3 and 5.9 ± 2.5, respectively in the groups. The average numbers of the grafts were 3.1 ± 1.0 and 2.9 ± 0.9. Mean extubation times were 8.52 ± 1.3 hours in group 1 and 6.34 ± 1.0 hours in group 2. The numbers of patients who needed pharmacological inotropic support were 12 in group 1 and five in group 2. Duration of hospital stay of the patients was shorter in group 2. While there were 14 patients with post-operative atrial fibrillation (PAF) in group 1, the number of patients with PAF in group 2 was five. Whereas there were seven patients who had pleural effusions requiring drainage in group 1, there were only two in group 2. There were three mortalities in group 1, and one in group 2. There were no sternal infections and sternal dehiscences in either group.ConclusionPre-treatment in moderate-risk COPD patients improved post-operative outcomes while decreasing adverse events and complications. Therefore for patients undergoing elective CABG, we recommend the use of medical treatment.

We demonstrated that elastic properties of pulmonary artery tend to be impaired as in the aorta in patients with BAV disease.