Aviv Weinstein PhD, Yafa Yaacov BA, Michal Manning BA, Pinhas Danon MD and Abraham Weizman MD
Background: Use of the internet and videogames by children and adolescents has risen dramatically over the last decade. Increasing evidence of internet and videogame addiction among children is causing concern due to its harmful physical, emotional and social consequences. There is also emerging evidence for an association between computer and videogame addiction and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Objectives: To investigate the relationship between ADHD and internet addiction.
Methods: We compared 50 male schoolchildren, mean age 13 years, diagnosed with ADHD to 50 male schoolchildren without ADHD on measures of internet addiction, internet use and sleep patterns.
Results: Children with ADHD had higher scores on the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), used the internet for longer hours, and went to sleep later than those without ADHD.
Conclusions: These findings indicate an association of ADHD, sleep disorders and internet/videogame addiction.
Ron Lavy MD, Yehuda Hershkovitz MD, Bar Chikman MD, Zahar Shapira MD, Natan Poluksht MD, Nirit Yarom MD, Judth Sandbank MD and Ariel Halevy MD
Background: Despite the ongoing decrease in the incidence of gastric cancer, this disease is still a major cause of death. It is still debatable whether D2 lymphadenectomy improves survival and whether this procedure should be performed routinely or selectively.
Objectives: To compare the pathological and short-term results following radical D2-type gastric resection and lymphadenectomy versus the more limited D1 type resection and lymphadenectomy.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective study on 4 years experience treating 164 patients suffering from gastric cancer. We compared the results between the group of patients who underwent a radical D2 type gastric resection and lymphadenectomy (n=100) and those of a relatively small group of patients who intentionally underwent the more limited D1 type (n=34).
Results: The overall number of harvested lymph nodes was 9 ± 4 in the D1 group compared to 30 ± 12 (range 16–69) in the D2 group (P = 0.001). Of the 100 patients undergoing a D2 lymphadenectomy, 57% had positive nodes compared to 38% of the 34 patients in the D1 group (P = 0.045).
Conclusions: We showed statistically significant differences between D1 and D2 procedures in the overall number of harvested lymph nodes and the proportion of positive nodes to the overall number. Our results support the fact that D2 resection should be recommended as the standard approach of treatment for gastric cancer patients, ensuring a larger number of retrieved lymph nodes and a comparable rate of complications and mortality.
May-Tal Rofe MD, Ran Levi PhD, Einat Hertzberg-Bigelman MSc, Pavel Goryainov MSc, Rami Barashi MD, Jeremy Ben-Shoshan MD PhD, Gad Keren MD and Michal Entin-Meer PhD
Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a prevalent clinical condition affecting 15% of the general population. Cardiorenal syndrome (CRS) type 4 is characterized by an underlying CKD condition leading to impairment of cardiac function and increased risk for major cardiovascular events. To date, the mechanisms leading from CKD to CRS are not completely understood. In particular, it is unclear whether the pathological changes that occur in the heart in the setting of CKD involve enhanced cell death of cardiac cells.
Objectives: To assess whether CKD may mediate loss of cardiac cells by apoptosis.
Methods: We established rat models for CKD, acute myocardial infarction (acute MI), left ventricular dysfunction (LVD), and sham. We measured the cardiac-to-body weight as well as kidney-to-body weight ratios to validate that renal and cardiac hypertrophy occur as part of disease progression to CRS. Cardiac cells were then isolated and the percent of cell death was determined by flow cytometry following staining with annexin-FITC and propidium iodide. In addition, the levels of caspase-3-dependent apoptosis were determined by Western blot analysis using an anti-cleaved caspase-3 antibody.
Results: CKD, as well as acute MI and LVD, resulted in significant cardiac hypertrophy. Nevertheless, unlike the increased levels of cell death observed in the acute MI group, in the CKD group, cardiac hypertrophy was not associated with induction of cell death of cardiac cells. Caspase-3 activity was even slightly reduced compared to sham-operated controls.
Conclusions: Our data show that while CKD induces pathological changes in the heart, it does not induce cardiac cell death.
Adi Abulafia MD, Eli Rosen MD, Ehud I. Assia MD and Guy Kleinmann MD
Background: Cataract extraction is the most commonly performed ophthalmic surgical procedure. There is no registry for documenting cataract surgical procedures and the overall risk of its complications over time in Israel.
Objectives: To present trends in the number and type of selected parameters associated with cataract surgical procedures in Israel between 1990 and 2014.
Methods: Questionnaires had been sent annually to all surgical centers in which cataract surgery was performed in Israel during the study period. The trends that were investigated included annual rates, surgical sites, surgical techniques, use of an intraocular lens (IOL) and type and rates of postoperative endophthalmitis (POE).
Results: A total of 812,112 cataract surgical procedures were reported during the 25 year study period. Responses to the questionnaire increased from 75% in 1990 to 100% in 2006 onwards. The annual number of reported cataract surgical procedures increased from 16,841 (3.5 per 1000) in 1990 to 57,419 in 2014 (6.9 per 1000), representing an increase of 197%. There was a shift from performing the surgery in the public health system to private medical centers. The surgical technique changed from predominantly manual extracapsular cataract extraction (56% in 1999) to predominantly phacoemulsification (98.7% in 2014). POE rates decreased from 0.25% in 2002 to 0.028% in 2014.
Conclusions: There was a continuous increase in the rate of surgical cataract procedures, and more were performed in private medical facilities. There was also a major shift towards advanced cataract procedures and a decreased rate of POE.
Shai Rosenberg MD PhD, John M. Gomori MD, Avinoam Reches MD and Marc Gotkine MD
Francesca Cainelli MD and Sandro Vento MD