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RESEARCH LOG

Source Qian,T., Guo, X., Levi, A., Vinni, S., Shebert, R., & Sipski, M. (2005). High-dose methylprednisolone may cause myopathy in acute spinal cord injury patients. Spinal Cord, 43(4), 199-203. Purpose, aims or research questions of article:

Is it possible that the occurrence of acute corticosteroid myopathy (ACM) happens in patients because of the use of methylprednisolone in high doses within eight hours of a spinal cord injury?
Summarize the information from this source. The article we researched is based on a study of eight men with Spinal Cord Injuries. Common practice today is to administer methylprednisolone to SCI patients; however, the argument of the study is that high-dose methylprednisolone does cause myopathy in patients with acute spinal cord injury. The NASCIS (National Acute Spinal Cord Injury Studies) decided that five of the eight men were to receive a high dose of IV MP, and the other three were the control group. Each of the five men given MP right after the injury also received a muscle biopsy 5 to 10 days after the injury to see the effects of the medicine. The case findings revealed that each patient receiving MP showed acute myofibril necrosis and severe type II muscle atrophy in the muscle biopsy. An EMG was also used to further investigate, showing positive sharp waves and fibrillations in the tested muscles. The three men who did not receive an MP IV also received biopsies, within 24 hours of the injury, showed completely normal muscle fibers. According to the study, although giving MP to SPI patients is used to reduce inflammation, it may actually be causing damage to muscle fibers, and not as beneficial as we thought. (Qian et al., 2005) Is evidence consistent or inconsistent: Overall, the evidence in this study is inconsistent, but through further studies and research the body of evidence could become a valuable and consistent source. Statements regarding plausible explanations for the inconsistencies. There really isnt enough evidence to show any kind of consistency because the subject group was way too small. There were only eight cases total in this study. Further research is needed to come to any conclusions because the sample group was so small. Another inconsistency is that all of the subjects were male. The study also does not distinguish the diversity of race which also would affect the results of the study. Statements regarding the adequacy of the evidence. In this study all of the subjects who did or did not receive the drug consistently had the same results. The study had a diverse age group which included patients as young as 18 years to even older than 65 years. All subjects had the same kind of surgery in this study.

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