Effectiveness of Family-Professional Collaboration on Functional Goals Achievement of Children with Cerebral Palsy and Caregivers' Quality of Life and Burden: A Randomized Comparative Study.

Background: Family-professional collaboration is important to enhance the outcomes for children with cerebral palsy and their caregivers. Aims: This study examined the effect of implementing a family-professional collaboration practice model on children with cerebral palsy and their caregivers. Materials and methods: A randomized, single-blind comparative study included 28 physical therapists, 44 children with cerebral palsy between the ages of 2 and 12 years old, and their caregivers. Physical therapists in the experimental group received training in how to implement collaboration in their therapy sessions over the course of two sessions (3 h each). The children's achievement goal-range rate was measured using the Goal Attainment Scaling, the caregivers' quality of life was assessed using the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief, and the caregiver burden was evaluated using the Zarit Burden Interview. Results: All children showed improvement on the Goal Attainment Scaling change rate (p = 0.002), with no significant differences between groups (p < 0.44). However, a group × time interaction was observed. The Children Goal Attainment Scaling rate decreased between the two assessment sessions for children in the control group, while the Goal Attainment Scaling change rate was steady for the experimental group. There were no main effects of time and group or interaction of time × group reported on World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief domains and no main effect of time on the Zarit Burden Interview, but there was a main effect between groups (p = 0.03), with partial eta square = 0.11 in favor of the experimental group. Conclusions: The family-professional collaboration practice model could be a potential practice to positively improve the outcomes in children with cerebral palsy and their caregivers.

Methanol intoxication in the central region of Saudi Arabia: Five case studies.

Outbreaks of methanol poisoning have been described in the medical literature worldwide. However, the few outbreaks that have occurred in Saudi Arabia remain undocumented. This is especially noteworthy in light of the fact that Saudi Arabia is among the countries that explicitly prohibit the usage of alcoholic beverages and recreational drugs. Herein, we describe five cases of methanol poisoning in Saudi Arabia. The first three comprise patients admitted to the emergency room (ER) with signs of methanol toxicity, such as heart palpitations, vomiting, and blurred vision; otherwise, those patients were considered medically free. The remaining two cases were examined postmortem. A headspace gas chromatography-flame ionization detector was used to test blood, vitreous humor, and urine samples for methanol. Specific lethal concentrations of methanol were defined based on published case studies as 23-740 mg/dL in blood and 12-396 mg/dL in vitreous humor. In postmortem cases of our present study, samples exhibited lethal concentrations: 118 and 257 mg/dL in blood, 116.3 and 283 mg/dL in vitreous humor. In ER cases, methanol concentrations in urine samples were lower, at 7.5, 9.1, and 20.9 mg/dL; however, toxic symptoms were still observed. These case studies indicate that it is necessary to raise community awareness about the risk of methanol poisoning in order to minimize future poisoning epidemics.

Inverted Sinonasal Papilloma Involving the Middle Ear with Evidence of Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Inverted papilloma is an uncommon benign epithelial tumor that typically affects the nasal cavity and originates from the lateral sinonasal wall. Inverted papilloma occurring in the middle ear is an even more rare and aggressive condition. We describe a case of a 76-year-old man who was treated for isolated sinonasal inverted papilloma and after 20 months he was found to have a recurrence in the nasal cavity with middle ear involvement and malignant changes consistent with nonkeratinizing squamous cell carcinoma arising from inverted papilloma. Several surgical procedures were required to remove the tumor along with radiation therapy postoperatively.

Laryngeal carcinoma in a father and son. Possible familial risk?

[No Abstract Available].

High-Grade Transformation (Dedifferentiation) of Acinic Cell Carcinoma of the Parotid Gland: Report of an Unusual Variant.

Acinic cell carcinoma with high-grade transformation of the salivary gland is an unusual variant with less than fifty cases being reported in the literature. It is characterized by a low- and high-grade component juxtaposed with one another and tends to take on a more aggressive clinical course than its low-grade counterpart, suggesting a poor clinical outcome. We, hereby, report a case of acinic cell carcinoma in a 48-year-old woman with a 6-month history of a right parotid facial swelling rapidly increasing in size. The tumor was initially resected; however, residual focal tissue subsequently revealed areas typical of low-grade acinic cell carcinoma as well as high-grade transformation/dedifferentiation via histopathology.

NGFR (p75) expression in cutaneous scars; Further evidence for a potential pitfall in evaluation of reexcision scars of cutaneous neoplasms, in particular desmoplastic melanoma.

Desmoplastic melanoma is a rare variant of malignant melanoma composed of spindle cells in a collagenous matrix. The antibody against NGFR (low affinity nerve growth factor receptor, also known as p75) stains cells of desmoplastic melanoma with high sensitivity; however, the specificity of this marker is not well established. Although there are established histologic criteria for recognition of desmoplastic melanoma, the evaluation of residual disease in cutaneous reexcision scars can be challenging. If residual spindle cells in scar are sufficiently atypical and NGFR positive, their presence could be interpreted as residual desmoplastic melanoma. In this study, we reevaluated the use of antibody against NGFR to detect residual disease in reexcision specimens of melanocytic neoplasms as the previously published works are contradictory. Our data indicate that anti-NGFR antibody stains many cells in the scar, some of which seem to be myofibroblasts, nerve twigs, and Schwann cells. Our findings further suggest that NGFR is not a suitable marker to evaluate reexcision scars for desmoplastic melanoma, especially as a sole marker, as its specificity is low.