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Aim of this systematic review of preclinical evidence was to determine the effects of intra-articular corticosteroid (CS) injections in joints affected by osteoarthritis (OA). A systematic review was performed on animal studies evaluating intra-articular CS injections for OA joints. The search was performed on PubMed, Cochrane, and Web of Science databases. A synthesis of the results was performed investigating CS effects by evaluating studies comparing CS with control groups. Morphological, histological, immunohistochemistry evaluations, clinical outcomes, biomarkers and imaging results were evaluated. The risk of bias was assessed according to the Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation's tool. Thirty-two articles analysing CS effects in OA animal models were included (1079 joints), 18 studies on small and 14 on large animals. CS injections showed overall positive effects in at least one of the outcomes in 68% of the studies, while 16% reported a deleterious effect. CS improved cartilage and synovial outcomes in 68% and 60% of the studies, but detrimental effects were documented in 11% and 20% of the studies, respectively. Clinical parameters evaluated in terms of pain, lameness or joint swelling improved in 63% of the studies but deteriorated in 13%. Evidence is limited on imaging and biomarkers results, as well as on the best CS type, dose, formulation and injection protocol. The risk of bias assessment revealed a 28% low and an 18% high risk of bias. Intra-articular CS injections induced a wide range of results on OA joints in experimental animal models, from disease-modifying and positive effects on pain and joint function at short-term evaluation to the lack of benefit or even negative effects. This underlines the need to identify more specific indications and treatment modalities to avoid possible detrimental effects while maximising the anti-inflammatory properties and the benefits of intra-articular CS in OA joints. Level II.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is frequently associated with neuropsychiatric impairments such as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can be screened using self-report instruments such as the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). The current study aims to inspect the factorial validity and cross-linguistic equivalence of the PCL-5 in individuals after TBI with differential severity. Data for six language groups (n ≥ 200; Dutch, English, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish) were extracted from the CENTER-TBI study database. Factorial validity of PTSD was evaluated using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), and compared between four concurrent structural models. A multi-group CFA approach was utilized to investigate the measurement invariance (MI) of the PCL-5 across languages. All structural models showed satisfactory goodness-of-fit with small between-model variation. The original DSM-5 model for PTSD provided solid evidence of MI across the language groups. The current study underlines the validity of the clinical DSM-5 conceptualization of PTSD and demonstrates the comparability of PCL-5 symptom scores between language versions in individuals after TBI. Future studies should apply MI methods to other sociodemographic (e.g., age, gender) and injury-related (e.g., TBI severity) characteristics to improve the monitoring and clinical care of individuals suffering from PTSD symptoms after TBI.

The subject of this study is intercultural contacts and relationships, the point of view that the logic and rational thinking of fundamentalists are very different from the logic of secularists. The author of the article concludes that the differences between the two main civilizations, archaic-fundamentalist-religious and atheistic-secular, determine the creation of different political structures in human society.