The effect of geodemographic factors on the attendance rates at a regional diabetic retinopathy treatment centre.

Aim: To determine whether geodemographic factors, specifically age, gender or commuting distance, affect the attendance rates of patients referred to a Diabetic Retinopathy Treatment (DRT) Centre from the Irish National Diabetic Retinal Screening (DRS) Programme.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of the first 1200 patients who were referred for ophthalmic assessment between November 2013 and June 2015 to Cork University Hospital's (CUH) DRT clinic from the DRS was completed.

Results: A total of 972 (81%) patients attended all their scheduled DRT appointments.

Design and evaluation of a novel subatmospheric pressure bioreactor for the preconditioning of tissue-engineered vascular constructs.

Purpose: The pre-conditioning of tissue-engineered vascular scaffolds with mechanical stimuli is being recognised as an essential step in producing a functional vascular construct. In this study we design and evaluate a novel bioreactor, which exerts a mechanical strain on developing vascular scaffolds via subatmospheric pressure.

Methods: We design and construct a bioreactor, which exerts subatmospheric pressure via a vacuum assisted closure unit.

Evaluation of xenogenic extracellular matrices as adjuvant scaffolds for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence.

Introduction And Hypothesis: Tissue-engineered biomaterials have shown recent promise as adjuvant scaffolds for treating stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The objective of the present study was to compare their mechanical and regenerative properties with synthetic biomaterials in this urogynaecological setting.

Methods: The biomechanical properties of polypropylene (Serasis®; n = 12), four-ply urinary bladder matrix (UBM; n = 12) and four-ply small intestinal submucosa (SIS; n = 12) were determined with uni-axial tensile testing protocols and compared with stress-strain curves.