McMaster University

About: McMaster University is a education organization based out in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 41361 authors who have published 101269 publications receiving 4251422 citations.

Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: IX. A Method for Grading Health Care Recommendations

Abstract: THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE of applied health research is to improve health care. Summarizing the literature to adduce recommendations for clinical practice is an important part of the process. Recently, the health sciences community has reduced the bias and imprecision of traditional literature summaries and their associated recommendations through the development of rigorous criteria for both literature overviews 1-3 and practice guidelines. 4,5 Even when recommendations come from such rigorous approaches, however, it is important to differentiate between those based on weak vs strong evidence. Recommendations based on inadequate evidence often require reversal when sufficient data become available, 6 while timely implementation of recommendations based on strong evidence can save lives. 6 In this article, we suggest an approach to classifying strength of recommendations. We direct our discussion primarily at clinicians who make treatment recommendations that they hope their colleagues will follow. However, we believe that any clinician who attends to

Increased auditory cortical representation in musicians

Abstract: Acoustic stimuli are processed throughout the auditory projection pathway, including the neocortex, by neurons that are aggregated into 'tonotopic' maps according to their specific frequency tunings. Research on animals has shown that tonotopic representations are not statically fixed in the adult organism but can reorganize after damage to the cochlea or after training the intact subject to discriminate between auditory stimuli. Here we used functional magnetic source imaging (single dipole model) to measure cortical representations in highly skilled musicians. Dipole moments for piano tones, but not for pure tones of similar fundamental frequency (matched in loudness), were found to be enlarged by about 25% in musicians compared with control subjects who had never played an instrument. Enlargement was correlated with the age at which musicians began to practise and did not differ between musicians with absolute or relative pitch. These results, when interpreted with evidence for modified somatosensory representations of the fingering digits in skilled violinists, suggest that use-dependent functional reorganization extends across the sensory cortices to reflect the pattern of sensory input processed by the subject during development of musical skill.

Measuring physical impairment and disability with the Chedoke-McMaster Stroke Assessment.

Abstract: The Chedoke-McMaster Stroke Assessment measures the physical impairments and disabilities that impact on the lives of individuals with stroke. This measure has three overall purposes: 1) to stage motor recovery to classify individuals in terms of clinical characteristics, 2) to predict rehabilitation outcomes, and 3) to measure clinically important change in physical function. This study was carried out to evaluate the ability of this measure to yield reliable and valid results.Thirty-two subjects from a stroke rehabilitation treatment unit were assessed by research and treating physical therapists using multiple measures on multiple occasions. The measure's three purposes dictated the study objectives and design.Intrarater, interrater, and test-retest reliabilities of the impairment and disability inventories were estimated. Reliability coefficients for the total scores ranged from 0.97 to 0.99. Construct and concurrent validities were studied by examining the correlations between this and other measures...