Plos One
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The purpose of this study was to compare the stability and feasibility of four fixation constructs in a posterior column acetabular fracture: one reconstruction plate, one reconstruction plate and lag screw, two reconstruction plates, and a W-shaped acetabular angular plate. ⋯ The novel W-shaped acetabular angular plate fixation technique was able to provide the biomechanically stiffest construct for stabilization of a posterior column acetabular fracture; it also resulted in a partial restoration of joint loading parameters toward the intact state.
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Over the last decades, the importance of cerebellar processing for cortical functions has been acknowledged and consensus was reached on the strict functional and structural cortico-cerebellar interrelations. From an anatomical point of view strictly contralateral interconnections link the cerebellum to the cerebral cortex mainly through the middle and superior cerebellar peduncle. Diffusion MRI (dMRI) based tractography has already been applied to address cortico-cerebellar-cortical loops in healthy subjects and to detect diffusivity alteration patterns in patients with neurodegenerative pathologies of the cerebellum. ⋯ From each tract, measures of microscopic damage were assessed, and despite the presence of unilateral lesions, bilateral diffusivity differences in white matter tracts were found comparing patients with normal controls. Consistently, bilateral alterations were also evidenced in specific brain regions linked to the cerebellum and involved in higher-level functions. This could be in line with the evidence that in the presence of unilateral cerebellar lesions, different cognitive functions can be affected and they are not strictly linked to the side of the cerebellar lesion.
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Limited data is available regarding the pharmacological prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in Asian patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty or total hip arthroplasty (TKA/THA). ⋯ This represents the largest epidemiological study showing a gradual increase in the use of pharmacological prophylaxis in Korean patients undergoing TKA/THA. Although the incidence of VTE is still low without pharmacological prophylaxis, this study demonstrates that the incidence of VTE can be reduced further using appropriate pharmacological thromboprophylaxis strategies.
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The aim of this study was to investigate osteoporosis risk in atopic dermatitis (AD) patients. This study included patients in the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research dataset. The population-based study included all patients aged 20-49 years who had been diagnosed with AD during 1996-2010. ⋯ The overall incidence of osteoporosis was4.72-fold greater in the AD patients compared to the non-AD patients (1.82 vs. 0.24 per 1,000 person-years, respectively) after adjusting for potential confounding factors. Osteoporosis risk factors included female gender, age, advanced Charlson Comorbidity Index, depression and use of corticosteroids. The dataset analysis showed that AD was significantly associated with subsequent risk of osteoporosis.
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Remifentanil-induced secondary hyperalgesia has been demonstrated in both animal experiments and clinical trials. Enhancement of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor trafficking as well as protein kinase C (PKC) and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) have been reported to be involved in the induction and maintenance of central sensitization. In the current study, it was demonstrated that dexmedetomidine could prevent remifentanil-induced hyperalgesia (RIH) via regulating spinal NMDAR-PKC-Ca2+/ CaMKII pathway in vivo and in vitro. ⋯ Subcutaneously injection of dexmedetomidine at the dose of 50 μg/kg at 30 min before plantar incision significantly attenuated remifentanil-induced mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia from 2 h to 48 h after infusion, and this was associated with reversal of up-regulated NR1 and NR2B subunits in both membrane fraction and total lysate as well as increased PKC and CaMKII expression in spinal cord dorsal horn. Furthermore, remifentanil incubation increased amplitude and frequency of NMDA receptor-induced current in dorsal horn neurons, which was dose-dependently attenuated by dexmedetomidine. These results suggest that dexmedetomidine can significantly ameliorate RIH via modulating the expression, membrane trafficking and function of NMDA receptors as well as PKC and CaMKII level in spinal dorsal horn, which present useful insights into the mechanistic action of dexmedetomidine as a potential anti-hyperalgesic agents for treating RIH.