Clinical outcomes of closed versus open simple ankle fractures patterns requiring soft tissue reconstruction: A prospective comparative observational study.

Background: Contemporary guidelines advocate for initial debridement and single-stage definitive fixation with immediate soft tissue reconstruction for open fractures. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of single-stage stabilization and immediate definitive soft tissue coverage in open ankle fractures compared to closed fractures.

Methods: We compared all isolated open ankle fractures (OF) treated between January 2017 and June 2019 to a control group of operatively managed closed ankle fractures (CF).

Breaking the Mould: Comparing 3D-Printed and Composite Bone Models in Orthopaedic Training.

Background and aim Synthetic composite bone models (reinforced solid foam) have become the standardised material used in practical orthopaedic education. However, with discussions regarding whether composite foam truly replicates human bone, there has been a drive to explore other available models. Three-dimensional (3D) printing has risen in both popularity and availability, providing a new option in the creation of anatomically accurate bone models.

Management of open elbow fractures: experiences and outcomes from a UK major trauma center.

Hypothesis And Background: Open fractures about the elbow are an infrequent but complex injury with limited existing literature. The aims of the study were to review the treatment strategies of open elbows fractures, functional outcome and complication rates associated with the injury, and correlate the outcome with the topography of the fracture.

Methods: Patients (n = 21) with open elbow fractures injuries over a 2-year period were analyzed.

Thirty-year monitoring of s-triazine herbicide contamination in the aquifer north of Vicenza (north-east Italy).

The aquifer north of Vicenza, Italy, is one of the main and most studied drinking water reservoirs within the Veneto region. The area is an intensive cropland, and monitoring of s-triazine herbicides and metabolites has been carried out since the late eighties. This study analysed the trends of atrazine (ATR), terbuthylazine (TBZ), deethyl-atrazine (DEA), and deethyl-terbuthylazine (DET) concentrations from 1987 to 2016 and related the variations of agricultural land use, herbicide load, and pesticide regulations to the residence time of pollutants in the aquifer.

Barriers to staff reporting adverse incidents in NHS hospitals.

Our study assessed barriers to reporting adverse incidents (AIs). Adverse incident reporting (AIR), although it is a pillar of risk management, has a wide variation in staff perception and usage. A questionnaire was used in five NHS hospitals to assess 267 members of multidisciplinary team (MDT) staff usage of AIR.

Electrostatic control of thickness and stiffness in a designed protein fiber.

Attempts to design peptide-based fibers from first principles test our understanding of protein folding and assembly, and potentially provide routes to new biomaterials. Several groups have presented such designs based on alpha-helical and beta-strand building blocks. A key issue is this area now is engineering and controlling fiber morphology and related properties.

Simultaneous assessment of electrocardiographic parameters for risk stratification: validation in healthy subjects.

Background: Sudden cardiac death represents a major public health problem, but in the general population the identification of those subjects at very high risk remains poor. Simultaneous multiparametric ECG analysis can improve the identification of high-risk patients.

Methods: Five-min ECG recordings at a 5 MHz sampling rate (extended length-XL-ECG, Mortara Instruments, Milwaukee, WI, USA) were acquired in 105 healthy subjects (age range 21 to 80 years), equally distributed for age decades and sex, and three additional recordings, 30 min apart, were repeated in 30 subjects on the second day.

[Economic study of the cost of peripheral blood hematopoietic precursor autotransplantation compared with bone marrow transplantation].

Background: Rescue with progenitor cells (blood or bone marrow) following intensive chemotherapy is used ever more frequently and the results are particularly satisfactory in leukemias and lymphomas. Nonetheless, the real cost of this procedure is not known in Spain, thus the aim of this study.

Methods: The costs of autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) in 10 patients was compared with another group of 10 patients with the same type of tumoral pathology in which autologous transplantation of peripheral blood precursors (APBP) was used.

Clinical application of pulsatility index of flow volume to detect the hemodynamic changes in IUGR fetus.

We attempted to assess feto-placental circulation in fetuses with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) by calculating the pulsatility index of flow volume (PIQ) based on the quantitative measurement of blood flow. Doppler sound was processed by an analog to digital converter and a frequency analyzer. Multiplication of frequency and signal strength of the Doppler sound at a certain time theoretically represents a value proportional to flow volume.

Analysis of the binding of Ca2+ to gramicidin A in ethanol in terms of the dimer-monomer conformational equilibrium.

This study reports the first direct observation of the binding of Ca2+ to gramicidin A in ethanol, analysed in terms of the polypeptide dimer-monomer conformational equilibrium. High performance size-exclusion chromatography has been successfully used to elucidate the binding mechanism and to determine the rate constants as well as the stoichiometry of the processes involved. In addition, fluorescence intensity and anisotropy measurements have revealed a dependence of the number of accessible Ca2+-binding sites on the peptide concentration.