Effects of early cognitive rehabilitation training on cognitive function and quality of life in critically ill patients with cognitive impairment: A randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Patients often develop cognitive dysfunction during admission to the ICU and after being transferred out of the ICU, which leads to physical disorders, sleep disorders, and psychological stress.Cognitive rehabilitation training can significantly improve patients' planning, decision-making ability, and executive function.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to explore the role of early cognitive rehabilitation training in improving cognitive impairment in critically ill patients.

METHODS

This study was a prospective, randomised, controlled clinical trial conducted from January 2017 to June 2021. Critically ill patients with cognitive impairment admitted to the Department of Intensive Care Medicine of The Third Hospital of Mianyang were randomly divided into the control (n = 68) and intervention groups (n = 68). Cognitive rehabilitation training (including digital operating system training, music therapy, aerobic training, and mental health intervention) was applied to the patients in the intervention group for 6 months, while the control group did not receive any cognitive intervention. Before 3 and 6 months after enrolment, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey Scale were used to evaluate cognitive function and quality of life, respectively, in both groups.

RESULTS

A total of 136 critical patients were included in the final analysis. There were no significant differences in sex, age, years of education, complications, intensive care unit hospitalisation time, mechanical ventilation time, or the total score of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment scale when transferred out of the intensive care unit in 24 hours between the two groups. Six months later, the results of the follow-up showed that the cognitive function score in the intervention group was significantly higher than that in the control group (26.69 ± 2.49 vs. 23.03 ± 3.79). The analysis of quality of life showed that the scores in all areas in the intervention group improved. There were significant differences in physical functioning (69.02 ± 8.14 vs. 63.38 ± 11.94), role physical (62.02 ± 12.18 vs. 58.09 ± 8.83), general health (46.00 ± 15.21 vs. 40.38 ± 13.77), vitality (61.00 ± 11.01 vs. 54.38 ± 13.80), social functioning (70.00 ± 10.29 vs. 64.41 ± 13.61), role emotional (78.00 ± 8.00 vs. 72.15 ± 12.18), and mental health (71.00 ± 12.33 vs. 55.37 ± 10.76) between the two groups (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Early cognitive rehabilitation training can improve cognitive impairment in critically ill patients and their quality of life.

Feasibility of virtual reality-delivered pain psychology therapy for cancer-related neuropathic pain: a pilot randomised controlled trial

Virtual reality-delivered psychological therapies have recently been investigated as non-pharmacological management for acute and chronic pain. However, no virtual reality pain therapy software existed that met the needs of cancer patients with neuropathic pain. We created a bespoke virtual reality-delivered pain therapy software programme to help cancer patients manage neuropathic pain incorporating guided visualisation and progressive muscle relaxation techniques, whilst minimising the risk of cybersickness in this vulnerable patient population. This randomised controlled pilot study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, recruitment rates and risk of cybersickness of this pain therapy software programme. Clinical outcomes including opioid consumption, pain severity, pain interference and global quality of life scores were secondary aims. Of 87 eligible cancer patients with neuropathic pain, 39 were recruited (47%), allocated to either the intervention (20 patients, virtual reality pain therapy software programme) or control (19 patients, viewing virtual reality videos). Four patients withdrew before the 3-month follow-up (all in the control group). Pre-existing dizziness (Spearman ρ 0.37, p = 0.02) and pre-existing nausea (Spearman ρ 0.81, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with risk of cybersickness in both groups. Patients in the intervention group reported less cybersickness, as well as tolerated and completed all therapy sessions. At 1- and 3-month follow-up, there were trends in the intervention group towards reductions in: oral morphine equivalent daily dose opioid consumption (-8 mg and -4 mg; vs. control: 0 mg and +15 mg respectively); modified Brief Pain Inventory pain severity (-0.4, -0.8; vs. control +0.4, -0.3); and pain interference (-0.9, -1.8; vs. control -0.2, -0.3) scores. The global quality of life subscale from the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30 was not significantly changed between groups at 1 and 3 months (intervention: -5, -8; vs. control: +3, +4). This newly created virtual reality-delivered pain therapy software programme was shown to be feasible and acceptable to cancer patients with neuropathic pain. These results will aid the design of a definitive multicentre randomised controlled trial.

The effect of amino plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition-treated titanium surface on Schwann cells

The surface modification of titanium and its alloys with amino group plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition has been proven to enhance the performance of implants on initial osteoblast bioactivity in vitro. However, scarce information on the effect of this kind of surface modification on nerve regeneration exists. In this study, the surface chemistry of pure Ti disks and surface-modified disks was examined using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Cell counting kit 8 assay, 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining, flow cytometry, and scanning electron microscopy showed that either the p30% or cw + p30% mode-mediated surface significantly promote Schwann cell adhesion without any cytotoxicity compared with the pure Ti surface, and the cw + p30% group showed the best performance on cell adhesion. However, results of polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analyses showed that the mRNA and protein levels of glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor of the p30% and cw + p30% groups were lower than those of the Ti group at some time points. Generally, the results indicate that amino-functionalized Ti surfaces can promote Schwann cell adhesion without cytotoxicity, but this modification, in fact, inhibited the expression of the key growth factors GDNF and NGF of Schwann cells. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 265-271, 2018.

Engineering silicon crystals for photovoltaics

In this highlight, we review the recent engineering efforts in the state-of-the art industrial production of customized silicon crystals, including quasi-mono and multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si).

A salicylic acid-induced rice (Oryza sativa L.) transcription factor OsWRKY77 is involved in disease resistance of Arabidopsis thaliana

Plant WRKY transcription factors act as either positive or negative regulators of plant basal disease resistance. To comprehensively characterise the complicated functional network, we isolated OsWRKY77 from rice seedlings treated with salicylic acid. OsWRKY77 is a typical WRKY transcription factor, based on in its protein structure analysis, nuclear localisation of the fused OsWRKY77-GFP protein and gel electrophoretic mobility shift assay binding, which demonstrated that OsWRKY77 was able to bind a W-box. Transgenic Arabidopsis lines overexpressing OsWRKY77 repressed growth of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (PstDC300), and the reduced susceptibility was associated with enhanced expression of defence-related PR1, PR2 and PR5 genes. These results show that OsWRKY77 is a positive regulator of PR gene expression and basal resistance to the bacterial pathogen PstDC3000.

[Studies on the infrared spectra of clusters containing O3MoS3, [Mo(x) (CO)y(O,S-C6H4-1,2)3FezLm]n- (x = 1,2 or 3, y = 0,3,7 or 4, z = 0 or 1, L = Cl, m = 0,2, n = 1 or 2) unit and the relationship between the spectra and their structures]

The IR spectra of clusters containing O3MoS3 Unit, (Et4N) [Mo(O, S-C6H4-1,2)3](1), (Et4N)2[Mo2(CO)3(O,S-C6H4-1,2)3](2), (Et4N)2[Mo3(CO)7(O,S-C6H4-1,2)3](3) and (Et4N)2[Mo2(CO)4(O,S-C6H4-1,2)3FeCl2](4) have been investigated. The characteristic frequencies, nu (Mo(n+)-OtR) (n = 4,5), nu (Mo(n+)-ObR) (n = 0,4), nu (Mo(n+)-StR) (n = 4,5), nu (Mo(n+)-SbR)(n = 0,1,4), nu (C = O), nu (Mo(n+)-C)(n = 0,1), delta (Mo(n+)-C-O)(n = 0,1), nu (Fe(2+)-ObR) and nu (Fe(2+)-Cl) were assigned by comparing the vibrational frequencies and structure parameters of them with that of Mo-Fe-S clusters. The influences of sigma donor abilities of ligands L(-OR, -SR) on nu (Mo-C) and nu (C = O) and the effect of Mo(n+)-->Mo4+ (n = 0,1) charge transfer on nu (Mo(4+)-ObR), nu (Mo(n+)-C) and nu (C = O) have been discussed. A partial oxidation of cluster 4 to [Mo2(CO)3(O,S-C6H4-1,2)3]- (5) have been inferred according to the information from the changes of IR spectra of cluster 4 in air with time and the existence of cluster 5 was also verified by NFAB-MS of cluster 4.