Study Design and Setting: Data of two time points, baseline and 3-month follow-up, of a randomized controlled trial were used. A total of 358 nurses and allied health professionals of one Dutch academic medical center participated at both measurement points.
Separate MIC values were calculated for the total score of the NWFQ and its six subscales, using two anchor-based methods: mean change and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve methods. Two this website methods for baseline corrections were applied: subgroup analyses and MIC calculation based on relative change scores. The SDCs were calculated using the standard error of the measurement.
Results: MIC values ranged from 3.4 to 8.3 for the mean change method and from 1.5 to 9.5 for Selleck Givinostat the ROC curve method. In a subgroup with high-baseline scores, the MIC values of the two methods ranged from 4.4 to 29 and 9.5 to 41.5, respectively. The SDC values ranged from 7.2 to 17. Only
one MIC value exceeded the SDC; however, 10 of the 14 MIC values exceeded the SDC in the high-baseline group.
Conclusion: Three of the seven NWFQ scales exhibited sufficient interpretability of individual change. For four scales, conclusions on the interpretability of change cannot yet be drawn. SDCs were small compared with the scale range. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Objectives: To investigate the regulation of sclerostin (SOST) in osteoarthritis (OA) and its potential effects on articular cartilage degradation.
Methods: SOST and HKI-272 molecular weight other Wnt-beta-catenin
components were immuno-localised in osteochondral sections of surgically-induced OA in knees of sheep and mice, and human OA samples obtained at arthroplasty. Regulation of SOST mRNA and protein expression by ovine chondrocytes in response to interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) or tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha) was examined in explant cultures. The effect of 25 or 250 ng/ml recombinant SOST alone or in combination With IL-1 alpha, on ovine articular cartilage explant aggrecan degradation, and chondrocyte gene expression of Wnt-beta-catenin pathway proteins, metalloproteinases and their inhibitors, and cartilage matrix proteins was quantified.
Results: Contrary to being an osteocyte-specific protein, SOST was expressed by articular chondrocytes, and mRNA levels were upregulated in vitro by IL-1 alpha but not TNF alpha. Chondrocyte SOST staining was significantly increased only in the focal area of cartilage damage in surgically-induced OA in sheep and mice, as well as end-stage human OA. In contrast, osteocyte SOST was focally decreased in the subchondral bone in sheep OA in association with bone sclerosis.