Background: Sclerostin (SOST) is traditionally regarded as an osteocyte-derived secreted glycoprotein that regulates bone mineralization. Recent studies reported that SOST is also released from non-skeletal sources, especially during inflammation. However, the cellular source and regulatory mechanisms governing SOST generation in inflammation remain unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKnee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common and debilitating disorder marked by joint degradation, inflammation, and persistent pain. This study examined the possible therapeutic effects of curcumin and vitamin D on OA progression and pain in a rat knee OA model by anterior cruciate ligament transection and meniscectomy (ACLT + MMx). Male Wistar rats were categorized into five groups: control, curcumin-treated (100 mg/kg/day), vitamin D-treated (25 µg/kg/day), a combination of vitamin D and curcumin, and sham-operated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground/objectives: (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a debilitating, incurable neurodegenerative disorder characterised by motor neuron death in the spinal cord, brainstem, and motor cortex. With an incidence rate of about 4.42 cases per 100,000 people annually, ALS severely impacts motor function and quality of life, causing progressive muscle atrophy, spasticity, paralysis, and eventually death.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: We aimed to determine whether implementation of clinical decision support (CDS) tool integrated into the electronic health record (EHR) of a multi-site academic medical center increased the proportion of patients with American Urological Association (AUA) "high risk" microscopic hematuria (MH) who receive guideline concordant evaluations.
Materials And Methods: We conducted a two-arm cluster randomized quality improvement project in which 202 ambulatory sites from a large health system were randomized to either have their physicians receive at time of test results an automated CDS alert for patients with 'high-risk' MH with associated recommendations for imaging and cystoscopy (intervention) or usual care (control). Primary outcome was met if a patient underwent both imaging and cystoscopy within 180 days from MH result.