Loss of Toll-like receptor 9 protects from hepatocellular carcinoma in murine models of chronic liver disease.

Background & Aims: Toll-like receptor 9 (Tlr9) is a pathogen recognition receptor detecting unmethylated DNA derivatives of pathogens and damaged host cells. It is therefore an important modulator of innate immunity. Here we investigated the role of Tlr9 in fibrogenesis and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic liver disease.

Bone healing using a bi-phasic ceramic bone substitute demonstrated in human vertebroplasty and with histology in a rabbit cancellous bone defect model.

A non-exothermic material that demonstrates clinical pain relief comparable to polymethylacrylate (PMMA) for vertebroplasty and promotes bone healing is desirable. The purpose of this investigation is to demonstrate clinical pain score improvement and bone healing following vertebroplasty with a novel bi-phasic ceramic cement. Twenty patients were prospectively treated for compression fractures in a single center in the USA with the injectable bi-phasic ceramic bone substitute.

A prospective randomized FDA-IDE trial comparing Cortoss with PMMA for vertebroplasty: a comparative effectiveness research study with 24-month follow-up.

Study Design: Randomized, controlled, prospective (AAOS therapeutic level I) trial conducted under Food and Drug Administration Investigational Device Exemption hypothesized noninferiority of a novel bioactive composite material to polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA).

Objective: To determine the safety and efficacy of a new, nonresorbable bioactive composite (Cortoss) compared with PMMA, the standard treatment of vertebral compression fractures (VCFs).

Summary Of Background Data: Vertebroplasty with PMMA, the widely adopted treatment for VCFs nonresponsive to conservative care, provides effective, immediate pain relief, but the material has received criticism for its properties.

Neuroimaging in infantile autism.

Metabolic findings using [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) with positron emission tomography (PET) and correlative anatomic findings with computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were characterized in 13 children with infantile autism. Four of 13 patients had both an abnormal FDG-PET and an abnormal MRI, whereas seven of 13 patients had both a normal FDG-PET and a normal CT or MRI. Sixteen of a total of 195 brain areas qualitatively examined with FDG-PET had a hypometabolic abnormality on PET.

Pilocytic astrocytoma: correlation between the initial imaging features and clinical aggressiveness.

Objective: Astrocytomas are classified as either fibrillary or pilocytic on the basis of their histologic appearance. The imaging features of the fibrillary astrocytoma correlate closely with the tumor's clinical aggressiveness and are, therefore, useful in predicting prognosis. Correlation between the imaging features and the clinical aggressiveness of the pilocytic astrocytoma, however, is not well established.