The Role of CT and MR Imaging in Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy of the Spine: From Patient Selection and Treatment Planning to Post-Treatment Monitoring.

Spine metastases (SMs) are common, arising in 70% of the cases of the most prevalent malignancies in males (prostate cancer) and females (breast cancer). Stereotactic body radiotherapy, or SBRT, has been incorporated into clinical treatment algorithms over the past decade. SBRT has shown promising rates of local control for oligometastatic spinal lesions with low radiation dose to adjacent critical tissues, particularly the spinal cord.

Assessing the Accessibility, Engagement, and Value of the Virtual Global Spine Conference as an Educational Platform for Spine: A Three-Year Review.

Introduction: The Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic ushered a paradigm shift in medical education, accelerating the transition to virtual learning in select cases. The Virtual Global Spine Conference (VGSC), launched at the height of the pandemic, is a testament to this evolution, providing an independent educational series for spine care professionals worldwide. This study assesses VGSC's 3-year performance, focusing on accessibility, engagement, and educational value.

The LRRK2 kinase substrates RAB8a and RAB10 contribute complementary but distinct disease-relevant phenotypes in human neurons.

Mutations in the LRRK2 gene cause familial Parkinson's disease presenting with pleomorphic neuropathology that can involve α-synuclein or tau accumulation. LRRK2 mutations are thought to converge upon a pathogenic increase in LRRK2 kinase activity. A subset of small RAB GTPases has been identified as LRRK2 substrates, with LRRK2-dependent phosphorylation resulting in RAB inactivation.

Management Algorithm for Osseous Metastatic Disease: What the Treatment Teams Want to Know.

Radiologists play a primary role in identifying, characterizing, and classifying spinal metastases and can play a lifesaving role in the care of these patients by triaging those with instability to urgent spine surgery consultation. For this reason, an understanding of current treatment algorithms and principles of spinal stability in patients with cancer is vital for all who interpret spine studies. In addition, advances in imaging allow radiologists to provide more accurate diagnoses and characterize pathology, thereby improving patient safety.

The LRRK2 kinase substrates Rab8a and Rab10 contribute complementary but distinct disease-relevant phenotypes in human neurons.

Mutations in the LRRK2 gene cause familial Parkinson's disease presenting with pleomorphic neuropathology that can involve α-synuclein or tau accumulation. LRRK2 mutations are thought to converge toward a pathogenic increase in LRRK2 kinase activity. A subset of small Rab GTPases have been identified as LRRK2 substrates, with LRRK2-dependent phosphorylation resulting in Rab inactivation.

Hyperactive immature state and differential CXCR2 expression of neutrophils in severe COVID-19.

Neutrophils are vital in defence against pathogens, but excessive neutrophil activity can lead to tissue damage and promote acute respiratory distress syndrome. COVID-19 is associated with systemic expansion of immature neutrophils, but the functional consequences of this shift to immaturity are not understood. We used flow cytometry to investigate activity and phenotypic diversity of circulating neutrophils in acute and convalescent COVID-19 patients.

Utility of Virtual Spine Neurosurgery Education for Medical Students.

Objective: Distance learning has become increasingly important to expand access to neurosurgical spine education. However, emerging online spine education initiatives have largely focused on residents, fellows, and surgeons in practice. We aimed to assess the utility of online neurosurgical spine education for medical students regarding career interests, knowledge, and technical skills.

Multispecialty perspective on intradural disc herniation: diagnosis and management - A case report.

Background: Intradural disc herniation (IDH) is a very rare and challenging diagnosis, with an estimated incidence of less than 1.5%. The pathogenesis of IDH remains uncertain.

Neuronal mitochondria transport Pink1 mRNA via synaptojanin 2 to support local mitophagy.

PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) is a short-lived protein required for the removal of damaged mitochondria through Parkin translocation and mitophagy. Because the short half-life of PINK1 limits its ability to be trafficked into neurites, local translation is required for this mitophagy pathway to be active far from the soma. The Pink1 transcript is associated and cotransported with neuronal mitochondria.

Atlantoaxial Osteoarthritis: A Well-Established Entity that Remains Frequently Overlooked.

Painful atlantoaxial (C1-2) osteoarthritis (AAOA) has been described over 40 years ago. The condition may cause severe pain symptoms and disability related to the unilateral suboccipital pain and, in some cases, occipital neuralgia. One of the greatest challenges with AAOA is making the diagnosis.

Deep Learning Image Processing Enables 40% Faster Spinal MR Scans Which Match or Exceed Quality of Standard of Care : A Prospective Multicenter Multireader Study.

Objective: This prospective multicenter multireader study evaluated the performance of 40% scan-time reduced spinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reconstructed with deep learning (DL).

Methods: A total of 61 patients underwent standard of care (SOC) and accelerated (FAST) spine MRI. DL was used to enhance the accelerated set (FAST-DL).

Identification of 16p11.2 deletion syndrome on a child inpatient psychiatric unit: A case report and call for inpatient genetic testing.

Purpose: This case highlights the importance of nursing-directed interprofessional treatment and inpatient unit genetic testing to identify genetic syndromes that may potentiate psychiatric conditions.

Sources Used: A case study of a 10-year-old Caucasian male with a history of a congenital heart defect, hand malformation, and low academic functioning who was admitted to the child inpatient psychiatric unit for eloping from school, aggression, and possible psychotic symptoms. Data were collected using patient medical records and interprofessional evaluation from nursing, psychiatry, and occupational therapy.

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Spine Surgery.

Study Design: Narrative review.

Objectives: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have emerged as disruptive technologies with the potential to drastically affect clinical decision making in spine surgery. AI can enhance the delivery of spine care in several arenas: (1) preoperative patient workup, patient selection, and outcome prediction; (2) quality and reproducibility of spine research; (3) perioperative surgical assistance and data tracking optimization; and (4) intraoperative surgical performance.

Cell Type-Specific Transcriptomics Reveals that Mutant Huntingtin Leads to Mitochondrial RNA Release and Neuronal Innate Immune Activation.

The mechanisms by which mutant huntingtin (mHTT) leads to neuronal cell death in Huntington's disease (HD) are not fully understood. To gain new molecular insights, we used single nuclear RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) and translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP) to conduct transcriptomic analyses of caudate/putamen (striatal) cell type-specific gene expression changes in human HD and mouse models of HD. In striatal spiny projection neurons, the most vulnerable cell type in HD, we observe a release of mitochondrial RNA (mtRNA) (a potent mitochondrial-derived innate immunogen) and a concomitant upregulation of innate immune signaling in spiny projection neurons.

Common Data Elements in Head and Neck Radiology Reporting.

Radiologists must convert the complex information in head and neck imaging into text reports that can be understood and used by clinicians, patients, and fellow radiologists for patient care, research, and quality initiatives. Common data elements in reporting, through use of defined questions with constrained answers and terminology, allow radiologists to incorporate best practice standards and improve communication of information regardless of individual reporting style. Use of common data elements for head and neck reporting has the potential to improve outcomes, reduce errors, and transition data consumption not only for humans but future machine learning systems.

Virtual Spine: A Novel, International Teleconferencing Program Developed to Increase the Accessibility of Spine Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: The coronavirus identified in 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic effectively ended all major spine educational conferences in the first half of 2020. In response, the authors formed a "virtual" case-based conference series directed at delivering spine education to health care providers around the world. We herein share the technical logistics, early participant feedback, and future direction of this initiative.

Sacral Fractures and Sacroplasty.

Sacral fractures result from high-impact trauma or in the form of insufficiency or pathologic fractures, resulting from osteoporosis, radiation therapy, or malignancy. In the emergency setting, the escalating use of computed tomography has substantially increased diagnosis of sacral fractures, which are frequently occult on radiographs. Radiologists should be familiar with and create reports using the most current fracture classification systems, because this improves communication with the treatment team and optimizes patient care.