Rush University Medical Center

About: Rush University Medical Center is a healthcare organization based out in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 13915 authors who have published 29027 publications receiving 1379216 citations. The organization is also known as: Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center.

Living with a person who has parkinson's disease: The Spouse's perspective by stage of disease

Abstract: The objective of this study was to examine the experience of spouses caregiving for their spouse with Parkinson's disease (PD) and to determine whether their experiences differed by stage of disease. By using a cross-sectional design and mail questionnaire data from 380 spouse caregivers across 23 sites of the Parkinson Study Group, key caregiver variables were examined by stage of PD. Three categories of variables--caregiver role strain (10 measures), caregiver situation (four measures), and caregiver characteristics (four measures)--were analyzed by using t tests with Bonferroni correction. Specific types and amounts of role strain accumulated as the disease progressed, and they differed significantly between stages (p < 0.05). In the caregiving situation, the mean number of caregiving tasks tripled by stage 4/5. Negative changes in lifestyle plus decreases in predictability in caregivers' lives increased significantly in late-stage disease (p < 0.05). Caregiver characteristics of physical health and preparedness did not significantly differ across stages of disease. Depression was significantly higher by stage 4/5. Mutuality, the positive quality of the relationship as perceived by the caregiving spouse, declined beginning at stage 2. Caregiver strain is experienced across all stages of PD and accumulates significantly as the disease progresses. This study defines types and amounts of strain by stage of disease, which will be helpful in designing formal intervention trials to provide more effective help for spouse caregivers.

Comparison of the collagen meniscus implant with partial meniscectomy. A prospective randomized trial.

Abstract: Background: Loss of meniscal tissue leads to increased pain and decreased clinical function and activity levels. We hypothesized that patients receiving a collagen meniscus implant would have better clinical outcomes than patients treated with partial medial meniscectomy alone. Methods: Three hundred and eleven patients with an irreparable injury of the medial meniscus or a previous partial medial meniscectomy, treated by a total of twenty-six surgeon-investigators at sixteen sites, were enrolled in the study. There were two study arms, one consisting of 157 patients who had had no prior surgery on the involved meniscus (the “acute” arm of the study) and one consisting of 154 patients who had had one, two, or three prior meniscal surgical procedures (the “chronic” arm). Patients were randomized either to receive the collagen meniscus implant or to serve as a control subject treated with a partial meniscectomy only. Patients underwent frequent clinical follow-up examinations over two years and completed validated outcomes questionnaires over seven years. The patients who had received a collagen meniscus implant were required by protocol to have second-look arthroscopy at one year to determine the amount of new tissue growth and to perform a biopsy to assess tissue quality. Reoperation and survival rates were determined. Results: In the acute group, seventy-five patients received a collagen meniscus implant and eighty-two were controls. In the chronic group, eighty-five patients received the implant and sixty-nine were controls. The mean duration of follow-up was fifty-nine months (range, sixteen to ninety-two months). The 141 repeat arthroscopies done at one year showed that the collagen meniscus implants had resulted in significantly (p = 0.001) increased meniscal tissue compared with that seen after the original index partial meniscectomy. The implant supported meniscus-like matrix production and integration as it was assimilated and resorbed. In the chronic group, the patients who had received an implant regained significantly more of their lost activity than did the controls (p = 0.02) and they underwent significantly fewer non-protocol reoperations (p = 0.04). No differences were detected between the two treatment groups in the acute arm of the study. Conclusions: New biomechanically competent meniscus-like tissue forms after placement of a collagen meniscus implant, and use of the implant appears safe. The collagen meniscus implant supports new tissue ingrowth that appears to be adequate to enhance meniscal function as evidenced by improved clinical outcomes in patients with a chronic meniscal injury. The collagen meniscus implant has the utility to be used to replace irreparable or lost meniscal tissue in patients with a chronic meniscal injury. The implant was not found to have any benefit for patients with an acute injury. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level I. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Repetition priming in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease: a review of findings and theories.

Abstract: On repetition priming tasks, memory is measured indirectly as a change in performance due to recent experience. It is often functionally and neurally dissociated from performance on explicit memory tasks, which directly measure conscious recall or recognition of recent events. Repetition priming has therefore been extensively studied in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease, which feature mild to severe changes in explicit memory. Initial studies indicated that repetition priming was immune to the effects of aging and greatly reduced in Alzheimer's disease (AD). As more studies have been performed, however, these initial conclusions appear less clear than before and, in the case of AD, actually misleading. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of this rapidly expanding literature, articulate the issues that are critical to interpreting the empirical results, and discuss what new conclusions are suggested by the overall pattern of findings.

Surgical Management of Articular Cartilage Defects in the Knee

Abstract: The treatment of isolated cartilage lesions of the knee is based on several underlying principles, including a predictable reduction in the patient's symptoms, improvements in function and joint congruence, and prevention of progressive damage. Surgical options for cartilage restoration are described as palliative treatments, such as debridement and lavage; reparative, such as marrow stimulation techniques; or restorative, such as osteochondral grafting and autologous chondrocyte implantation. The choice of an appropriate treatment should be made on an individual basis, with consideration for the patient's specific goals (such as pain reduction or functional improvement), physical demand level, prior treatment history, lesion size and location, and a systematic evaluation of the knee that considers comorbidities, including alignment, meniscal status, and ligament integrity. It is important for the physician to be familiar with the indications, surgical techniques, and clinical outcomes of the available treatment options for chondral defects of the knee.