Spine
-
Simulate the progression of human disc degeneration. ⋯ Poor nutritional supply has a long-term effect on disc degeneration.
-
Prospective cohort study. ⋯ Patients undergoing elective lumbar arthrodesis reported relatively limited functional deficit due to stiffness at 2-year follow-up. Paradoxically, patients undergoing 1-level arthrodesis actually reported significantly less limitation due to stiffness postoperatively. Although the effects of stiffness did trend toward greater impacts among patients undergoing longer fusions, 91% of patients were satisfied with trade-offs of function and pain relief in exchange for perceived increases in lumbar stiffness.
-
A retrospective radiographical analysis. ⋯ The reconstitution of coronal balance was mainly compensated by distal unfused segments after selective posterior fusion of TL/L idiopathic scoliosis. The effect of unfused thoracic segments in coronal balance reconstitution mainly depended on its flexibility.
-
A descriptive study of the association between diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) and kyphosis. ⋯ DISH is associated with greater Cobb angle of kyphosis, especially when present in the thoracic spine alone. The association of DISH with Cobb angle is stronger within the African American population.
-
A total of 40 patients with spinal metastases from renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) or prostate carcinomas (PCs) were studied using DCE-MRI (dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging). ⋯ V(p) was shown to be the best discriminator between spinal metastases from PC and RCC with the mean V(p) of RCC metastasis being 1.8 times that of the PC lesions, thus discriminating between hyper- and hypovascular metastases, which has important clinical implications.