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The study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) combined with adjuvant therapies in preserving vocal function in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 47 ALS patients who underwent PDT at the Rodem Hospital from 2021 to 2023. Post-operatively, these patients were provided with a comprehensive treatment plan that included regenerative injection therapy, low-frequency electrical stimulation, respiratory rehabilitation, and swallowing rehabilitation therapy. Additionally, a balloon reduction program was implemented for effective tracheostomy tube (T-tube) management. The preservation of vocal functions was evaluated 4 weeks following the procedure. Results: While some patients maintained or slightly improved their ALSFRS-R speech scores, the overall trend indicated a decrease in speech scores post-PDT. This suggests that PDT in combination with adjuvant therapies may not universally improve vocal function, but can help maintain it in certain cases. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that PDT combined with mesotherapy, low-frequency electrical stimulation, and swallowing rehabilitation therapy may play a role in maintaining vocal function in limb type ALS patients, though further research is needed to optimize patient management and to validate these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No abstract available Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Our goal is to validate diagnosing and characterizing epilepsy based on a medical record survey by external reviewers., Methods: We reviewed medical records from 80 patients who received antiepileptic drugs in 2009 at two hospitals. The study consisted of two steps; data abstraction by certified health record administrators and then verification by the investigators. The gold standard was the results of the survey performed by the epileptologists from their own hospital., Results: The specificity was more than 90.0% for diagnosis and activity, and for new-onset seizures. The sensitivity was 97.0% or more for diagnosis and activity and 66.7-75.0% for new-onset epilepsy. This method accurately classified epileptic syndromes in 90.2-92.9% of patients, causes in 85.4-92.7%, and age of onset in 78.0-81.0%. Kappa statistics for inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability ranged from 0.641-0.975, which means substantial to near-perfect agreement in all items., Conclusions: Our data suggest that epilepsy can be well identified by external review of medical records. This method may be useful as a basis for large-scale epidemiological research.