Surgical treatment algorithm for thoracic and lumbar hyperkyphosis in pediatric population.

Purpose: There is no standardized and universally accepted surgical treatment for thoracic and lumbar hyperkyphosis in children. A surgical treatment algorithm was developed to aid in the choice of the appropriate corrective technique.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted of patients younger than 18 years who underwent primary correction surgery and posterior fusion for thoracic and lumbar hyperkyphosis.

Incorporating environmental heterogeneity and observation effort to predict host distribution and viral spillover from a bat reservoir.

Predicting the spatial occurrence of wildlife is a major challenge for ecology and management. In Latin America, limited knowledge of the number and locations of vampire bat roosts precludes informed allocation of measures intended to prevent rabies spillover to humans and livestock. We inferred the spatial distribution of vampire bat roosts while accounting for observation effort and environmental effects by fitting a log Gaussian Cox process model to the locations of 563 roosts in three regions of Peru.

Evaluation of outpatient halo-gravity traction in patients with severe scoliosis: development of a monitoring device.

Introduction: Patients with severe spinal deformities represent a major clinical and surgical challenge. Halo-gravity traction (HGT) is a traditional method to correct the deformity prior to surgery. Typically, children undergoing HGT remain in the hospital until surgery.

SumStatsRehab: an efficient algorithm for GWAS summary statistics assessment and restoration.

Background: Generating polygenic risk scores for diseases and complex traits requires high quality GWAS summary statistic files. Often, these files can be difficult to acquire either as a result of unshared or incomplete data. To date, bioinformatics tools which focus on restoring missing columns containing identification and association data are limited, which has the potential to increase the number of usable GWAS summary statistics files.

Hemivertebra Resection in Small Children. A Literature Review.

Study Design: Systematic review.

Objective: To evaluate the lowest possible age to resect an HV in very young patients with a congenital deformity.

Methods: We sought to retrieve all studies reporting age at HV excision in patients with congenital scoliosis.

Ecological determinants of rabies virus dynamics in vampire bats and spillover to livestock.

The pathogen transmission dynamics in bat reservoirs underpin efforts to reduce risks to human health and enhance bat conservation, but are notoriously challenging to resolve. For vampire bat rabies, the geographical scale of enzootic cycles, whether environmental factors modulate baseline risk, and how within-host processes affect population-level dynamics remain unresolved. We studied patterns of rabies exposure using an 11-year, spatially replicated sero-survey of 3709 Peruvian vampire bats and co-occurring outbreaks in livestock.

Neuromuscular lordoscoliosis: an unusual response to post-operative halo-gravity traction.

Purpose: To report the results of prolonged post-operative halo-gravity traction in a patient in whom the surgery had to be interrupted unexpectedly and for whom subsequently specific clinical circumstances contraindicated completion of the surgical procedure.

Methods: The patient was a 15-year-old male with severe cervico-dorsolumbar lordoscoliosis who was being studied for associated diffuse axonal injury. He performed halo-gravity traction for 12 weeks.

Longitudinal deep sequencing informs vector selection and future deployment strategies for transmissible vaccines.

Vaccination is a powerful tool in combating infectious diseases of humans and companion animals. In most wildlife, including reservoirs of emerging human diseases, achieving sufficient vaccine coverage to mitigate disease burdens remains logistically unattainable. Virally vectored "transmissible" vaccines that deliberately spread among hosts are a potentially transformative, but still theoretical, solution to the challenge of immunising inaccessible wildlife.

Distinct Roles of N-Terminal Fatty Acid Acylation of the Salinity-Sensor Protein SOS3.

The Salt-Overly-Sensitive (SOS) pathway controls the net uptake of sodium by roots and the xylematic transfer to shoots in vascular plants. SOS3/CBL4 is a core component of the SOS pathway that senses calcium signaling of salinity stress to activate and recruit the protein kinase SOS2/CIPK24 to the plasma membrane to trigger sodium efflux by the Na/H exchanger SOS1/NHX7. However, despite the well-established function of SOS3 at the plasma membrane, SOS3 displays a nucleo-cytoplasmic distribution whose physiological meaning is not understood.

Characterizing and Evaluating the Zoonotic Potential of Novel Viruses Discovered in Vampire Bats.

The contemporary surge in metagenomic sequencing has transformed knowledge of viral diversity in wildlife. However, evaluating which newly discovered viruses pose sufficient risk of infecting humans to merit detailed laboratory characterization and surveillance remains largely speculative. Machine learning algorithms have been developed to address this imbalance by ranking the relative likelihood of human infection based on viral genome sequences, but are not yet routinely applied to viruses at the time of their discovery.

Histiocytosis in the pediatric spine: a clinical and radiographic analysis of 50 patients.

Study Design: Descriptive, retrospective. Scientific level of evidence IV.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate a consecutive case series of 50 pediatric patients with LCH of the spine.

Diversification of mammalian deltaviruses by host shifting.

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is an unusual RNA agent that replicates using host machinery but exploits hepatitis B virus (HBV) to mobilize its spread within and between hosts. In doing so, HDV enhances the virulence of HBV. How this seemingly improbable hyperparasitic lifestyle emerged is unknown, but it underpins the likelihood that HDV and related deltaviruses may alter other host-virus interactions.

Surgical treatment of segmental spinal dysgenesis: a report of 19 cases.

Study Design: Retrospective review.

Objective: To describe clinical presentation, surgical management, long-term results, and complications in patients with segmental spinal dysgenesis (SSD). In addition, we sought to emphasize early surgery for this complex congenital abnormality.

Determination of I activity concentration and rate in main inflows and outflows of Salitre wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), Bogota.

Samples were collected for several weeks to determine the evolution of the I (Iodine-131) activity concentration in the inflow water processed at the Salitre wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Bogota, Colombia, derived from medical facilities for thyroid cancer diagnosis and treatment. Mass balances on I were performed based on the activity rates at the main inflow and outflow of the plant. The I activity concentration in the raw water stream was observed to increase significantly from Monday onwards throughout the week, while the daily activity concentration was highest in the morning and then continuously decreased over the rest of the day.

Long-term results of hemivertebra excision: How does the spine behave after the peak of puberty?

Introduction: Early hemivertebra (HV) excision and posterior spinal fusion (PSF) is advocated as the treatment of choice in congenital kyphoscoliosis. We assessed global spinal balance and spinal deformity status once the pubertal peak has taken place, in children with a history of HV excision and PSF at age younger than 5 years.

Methods: Twenty-seven children with congenital kyphoscoliosis without co-existing proximal/distal congenital spinal abnormalities who underwent HV excision and PSF of ≤ 5 levels at age younger than 5 years and who had reached the peak of puberty at the last follow-up visit were evaluated.

Aneurysmal Bone Cysts of the Spine in Children: A Review of 18 Cases.

Study Design: Retrospective study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical presentation, treatments, outcome, complications, and recurrence rate in the surgical and nonsurgical management of spinal aneurysmal bone cyst (ABC) in a series of 18 pediatric patients.

Methods: Between 1988 and 2014, we evaluated 18 pediatric patients diagnosed with ABC confirmed by pathology studies.

Selective Fusion in Lenke 1 B/C: Before or After Menarche?

Study Design: A retrospective, comparative study.

Objective: To determine the radiological behavior of the lumbar curve in selective fusions in premenarchal girls with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (Lenke 1 B/C).

Methods: A retrospective, comparative study was conducted.

Scoliosis in spinal muscular atrophy: is the preoperative magnetic resonance imaging necessary?

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of intraspinal alterations in scoliosis due to Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).

Methods: Cross-sectional, observational, descriptive study. Fifty-six patients with SMA diagnosis required surgical treatment due to scoliosis.

Antibiotic prophylaxis in high-risk pediatric spine surgery: Is cefazolin enough?

Study Design: Retrospective study.

Objective: To describe pathogens found in SSI during pediatric-instrumented spine surgery, and to assess the relationship between pathogens and the etiology of the spinal deformity. Surgical site infection (SSI) after pediatric spine fusion is a well-known complication with incidence rates between 0.

Inpatient versus outpatient halo-gravity traction in children with severe spinal deformity.

Study Design: A retrospective, comparative study.

Objective: To compare the results, complications, and costs of preoperative halo-gravity traction in in- and outpatient settings.

Background Data: Surgical management of severe spinal deformities remains complex and controversial.

Proximal junction kyphosis after posterior spinal fusion for early-onset scoliosis.

Study Design: Retrospective study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the presence of proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) in our population of children with early-onset scoliosis (EOS) and to identify the predisposing factors for the development of PJK in the postoperative period after posterior spinal fusion (PSF). Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the incidence of proximal junction kyphosis (PJK) in children after early-onset scoliosis (EOS) after posterior spinal fusion (PSF).

Fluorescent biomarkers demonstrate prospects for spreadable vaccines to control disease transmission in wild bats.

Vaccines that autonomously transfer among individuals have been proposed as a strategy to control infectious diseases within inaccessible wildlife populations. However, rates of vaccine spread and epidemiological efficacy in real-world systems remain elusive. Here, we investigate whether topical vaccines that transfer among individuals through social contacts can control vampire bat rabies-a medically and economically important zoonosis in Latin America.