Forever-Fit Summer Camp: The Impact of a 6-Week Summer Healthy Lifestyle Day Camp on Anthropometric, Cardiovascular, and Physical Fitness Measures in Youth With Obesity.

Pediatric obesity is a public health concern with lifestyle intervention as the first-line treatment. Forever-Fit Summer Camp (FFSC) is a 6-week summer day program offering physical activity, nutrition education, and well-balanced meals to youth at low cost. The aim of the study was to assess the efficacy of this program that does not emphasize weight loss rather emphasizes healthy behaviors on body mass index, cardiovascular and physical fitness. Methods: The inclusion criteria were adolescents between 8 and 12 years and body mass index (BMI) ≥85th percentile. The data were collected at baseline and week 6 (wk-6) and was analyzed for 2013-2018 using paired-sample t tests. Results: The participants' (N = 179) average age was 10.6 ± 1.6 years with a majority of females (71%) and black race/ethnicity (70%). At wk-6, BMI and waist circumference decreased by 0.8 ± 0.7 kg/m2 and 1.0 ± 1.3 in, respectively. Resting heart rate, diastolic and systolic blood pressure decreased by 8.5 ± 11.0 bpm, 6.3 ± 8.8 mmHg, and 6.4 ± 10.1 mmHg, respectively. The number of pushups, curl-ups, and chair squats were higher by 5.8 ± 7.5, 6.7 ± 9.1, and 7.7 ± 8.5, respectively. Conclusion: The FFSC is efficacious for improving BMI, cardiovascular, and physical fitness in the short term. The effect of similar episodic efforts that implement healthy lifestyle modifications throughout the school year should be investigated.

Efficacy of fluoroscopically guided steroid injections in the management of coccydynia.

BACKGROUND: Coccydynia is a rare but painful disorder characterized by axial coccygeal pain which is typically exacerbated by pressure. Management includes physical therapy/rectal manipulation, use of anti-inflammatory medications, modality use, coccygectomy, and fluoroscopically guided steroid injections. There are no studies documenting the efficacy of fluoroscopically guided coccygeal steroid injections in patients with coccydynia. METHODS: Retrospective chart review was used to collect data on 14 consecutive patients diagnosed with coccydynia who underwent a fluoroscopically guided coccygeal injection of 80 mg triamcinolone acetate and 2mg of 1% lidocaine over a 3-year period at a tertiary care academic medical center. RESULTS: Using stepwise logistic regression, acute pain was determined to be the best predictor of relief. Fisher's exact test showed that those patients with pain lasting less then 6 months were significantly more likely to have greater than 50% relief (P=0.055). Patients with chronic pain longer than 6 months were not found to have pain relief of >50% to any statistical significance, but every patient with acute pain showed improvement. CONCLUSION: Patients with acute pain (less then 6 months) are more likely to respond to fluoroscopically guided coccygeal steroid injections.

Lack of Correlation between the Enterotoxigenicity of Clostridium perfringens Isolates and Propionic Acid Formation or Amylase Activity at 46°C.

The absence in the supernatant fluid of either extracellular amylase in cultures grown at 46°C or propionic acid has been proposed for the presumptive identification of enterotoxin-positive strains of Clostridium perfringens . However we found that propionic acid was formed by several enterotoxin-positive, as well as enterotoxin-negative, strains of this organism. In addition 4 of 13 ent+ stains produced extracellular amylase during growth at 46°C. These results indicate that neither trait can be used as a reliable indicator of the enterotoxigenicity of isolates of this organism.