The inferior sacral iliac line as a horizontal reference plane in paediatric pelvic radiographs.

Background: While often used, Hilgenreiner's line may not always be a reliable reference plane following triple innominate pelvic osteotomy or trauma to the triradiate cartilage. The inferior sacral-iliac line is a horizontal line connecting the sclerotic corners of the inferior sacral-iliac joints. This is a consistent landmark in the ossifying infant pelvis as well as the fully developed adult pelvis.

Redirecting Care: Compassionate Management of the Sick or Preterm Neonate at the End of Life.

The primary moral commitment of medical care has traditionally been based on a belief in the intrinsic value and significance of human life and a desire to protect the most vulnerable from harm. In this respect, the care of newborn infants who are at the border of viability is no different. Despite the intrinsic value of the life of every newborn, all agree that there is no moral duty of doctors to provide every possible treatment where the prognosis is hopeless.

Natural Language Processing and Its Use in Orthopaedic Research.

Purpose Of Review: This review aims to demonstrate how natural language processing is used in orthopaedic research.

Recent Findings: Natural language processing is a form of artificial intelligence that involves encoding human-generated text or speech into a form which can be interpreted by computers to perform a variety of tasks. Natural language processing gathers, processes, and organizes large amounts of free-text data more efficiently than humans.

Redundant safety features in a high-channel-count retinal neurostimulator.

Safety features embedded in a 256-channel retinal prosthesis integrated circuit are presented. The biology of the retina and the electrochemistry of the electrode-tissue interface demand careful planning and design of the safety features of an implantable retinal stimulation device. We describe the internal limits and communication safety features of our ASIC, but we focus on monitoring and protection circuits for the electrode-tissue interface.

Electrographic seizures are associated with brain injury in newborns undergoing therapeutic hypothermia.

Objective: Seizures are common among newborns with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) but the relationship between seizure burden and severity of brain injury among neonates receiving therapeutic hypothermia (TH) for HIE is unclear. We tested the hypothesis that seizure burden is associated with cerebral tissue injury independent of amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG) background activity.

Study Design: Term neonates undergoing 72 h of TH at four centres were selected for study if they had continuous aEEG and MRI.

Identification and interpretation of microstructural abnormalities in motor pathways in adolescents born preterm.

There has been extensive interest in assessing the long-term effects of preterm birth on brain white matter microstructure using diffusion MRI. Our aim in this study is to explore diffusion MRI differences between adolescents born preterm and term born controls, with a specific interest in characterising how such differences are manifested in white matter regions containing predominantly single or crossing fibre populations. Probabilistic high angular resolution tractography together with large deformation spatial normalisation were used to objectively investigate diffusion tensor parameters at regular intervals along fibre tracts of 45 adolescents born before 33 weeks of gestation and 30 term-born typically developing adolescents.

ASIC design and data communications for the Boston retinal prosthesis.

We report on the design and testing of a custom application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that has been developed as a key component of the Boston retinal prosthesis. This device has been designed for patients who are blind due to age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa. Key safety and communication features of the low-power ASIC are described, as are the highly configurable neural stimulation current waveforms that are delivered to its greater than 256 output electrodes.

Interhemispheric temporal lobe connectivity predicts language impairment in adolescents born preterm.

Although language difficulties are common in children born prematurely, robust neuroanatomical correlates of these impairments remain to be established. This study investigated whether the greater prevalence of language problems in preterm (versus term-born) children might reflect injury to major intra- or interhemispheric white matter pathways connecting frontal and temporal language regions. To investigate this, we performed a comprehensive assessment of language and academic abilities in a group of adolescents born prematurely, some of whom had evidence of brain injury at birth (n = 50, mean age: 16 years, mean gestational age: 27 weeks) and compared them to a term-born control group (n = 30).

Overview of the boston retinal prosthesis: challenges and opportunities to restore useful vision to the blind.

A small, hermetic, wirelessly-controlled retinal prosthesis was developed for pre-clinical studies in Yucatan mini-pigs. The device was implanted on the outside of the eye in the orbit, and it received both power and data wirelessly from external sources. The prosthesis drove a sub-retinal thin-film array of sputtered iridium oxide stimulating electrodes.

Development of the boston retinal prosthesis.

A small, hermetic, wirelessly-controlled retinal prosthesis was developed for pre-clinical studies in Yucatan mini-pigs. The device was implanted on the outside of the eye in the orbit, and it received both power and data wirelessly from external sources. The prosthesis drove a sub-retinal thin-film array of sputtered iridium oxide stimulating electrodes.

White matter and cognition in adults who were born preterm.

Background And Purpose: Individuals born very preterm (before 33 weeks of gestation, VPT) are at risk of damage to developing white matter, which may affect later cognition and behaviour.

Methods: We used diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI) to assess white matter microstructure (fractional anisotropy; FA) in 80 VPT and 41 term-born individuals (mean age 19.1 years, range 17-22, and 18.

Speech and oromotor outcome in adolescents born preterm: relationship to motor tract integrity.

Objective: To assess speech abilities in adolescents born preterm and investigate whether there is an association between specific speech deficits and brain abnormalities.

Study Design: Fifty adolescents born prematurely (<33 weeks' gestation) with a spectrum of brain injuries were recruited (mean age, 16 years). Speech examination included tests of speech-sound processing and production and speech and oromotor control.

Communication and Control System for a 15-Channel Hermetic Retinal Prosthesis.

A small, hermetic, wirelessy-controlled retinal prosthesis has been developed for pre-clinical studies in Yucatan minipigs. The device was attached conformally to the outside of the eye in the socket and received both power and data wirelessly from external sources. Based on the received image data, the prosthesis drove a subretinal thin-film polyimide array of sputtered iridium oxide stimulating electrodes.

A hermetic wireless subretinal neurostimulator for vision prostheses.

A miniaturized, hermetically encased, wirelessly operated retinal prosthesis has been developed for preclinical studies in the Yucatan minipig, and includes several design improvements over our previously reported device. The prosthesis attaches conformally to the outside of the eye and electrically drives a microfabricated thin-film polyimide array of sputtered iridium oxide film electrodes. This array is implanted into the subretinal space using a customized ab externo surgical technique.

Total brain white matter is a major determinant of IQ in adolescents born preterm.

Objective: In preterm infants, white matter (WM) abnormalities detected on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at term-age are associated with early developmental delay. We set out to study this association in adolescents born pre-term, by examining intellectual outcome in relation to markers of brain injury, focusing on the effects of WM reduction.

Methods: Seventy-nine participants were recruited and assessed at a mean age of 16 years: 49 adolescents born preterm (<32 weeks' gestation) with a wide spectrum of brain injuries (including 22 with no identifiable brain injury at birth) and 30 term-born controls.

Setting research priorities to reduce almost one million deaths from birth asphyxia by 2015.

Joy Lawn and colleagues used a systematic process developed by the Child Health Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) to define and rank research options to reduce mortality from intrapartum-related neonatal deaths (birth asphyxia) by the year 2015.

Ophthalmological, cognitive, electrophysiological and MRI assessment of visual processing in preterm children without major neuromotor impairment.

Many studies report chronic deficits in visual processing in children born preterm. We investigated whether functional abnormalities in visual processing exist in children born preterm but without major neuromotor impairment (i.e.

Ethical challenges in the use of therapeutic hypothermia in Indian neonatal units.

Trials in developed countries have shown that therapeutic hypothermia reduces the risk of death or severe disability in infants with neonatal encephalopathy. Cooling has been adopted as a standard of care in some parts of the world. Some Indian neonatal units have considered or even embarked upon cooling encephalopathic term newborn infants.

Ethics and hypothermia treatment.

Hypothermia is the first effective neuroprotective intervention for newborns who are critically ill following a life-threatening asphyxial insult. It is not surprising that it has raised complex and controversial ethical dilemmas for investigators and clinicians. Given the history of iatrogenic disasters in neonatology, there has been an understandable reluctance to incorporate hypothermia into routine clinical practice until there is persuasive evidence from high quality randomised trials.

Realization of a 15-channel, hermetically-encased wireless subretinal prosthesis for the blind.

A miniaturized, hermetically-encased, wirelessly-operated retinal prosthesis has been developed for implantation and pre-clinical studies in Yucatan mini-pig animal models. The prosthesis conforms to the eye and drives a microfabricated polyimide stimulating electrode array with sputtered iridium oxide electrodes. This array is implanted in the subretinal space using a specially-designed ab externo surgical technique that affixes the bulk of the prosthesis to the surface of the sclera.

Captive reproduction of the Jamaican iguana (Cyclura collei).

The Jamaican iguana (Cyclura collei) was considered to be extinct until its rediscovery in 1990 in the Hellshire Hills region of Jamaica. Between 1994 and 1996, several wild caught juveniles were placed in six North American zoological institutions including the Indianapolis Zoo. The intent was to establish a self-sustaining captive population outside of Jamaica in order to serve as an ancillary population should the wild numbers decline.

Development and implantation of a minimally invasive wireless subretinal neurostimulator.

A wirelessly operated, minimally invasive retinal prosthesis was developed for preclinical chronic implantation studies in Yucatan minipig models. The implant conforms to the outer wall of the eye and drives a microfabricated polyimide stimulating electrode array with sputtered iridium oxide electrodes. This array is implanted in the subretinal space using a specially designed ab externo surgical technique that fixes the bulk of the prosthesis to the outer surface of the sclera.

Diffusion tensor MRI of the corpus callosum and cognitive function in adults born preterm.

Very preterm birth (before 33 weeks gestation) is associated with the white matter damage, and a common sequel is reduced size and altered shape of the corpus callosum. We used diffusion tensor MRI to assess the corpus callosum in 63 very preterm and 45 term-born young adults. Indices of white matter microstructure [fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD)] were obtained for the genu, body and splenium.

Therapeutic hypothermia for neonatal encephalopathy: a UK survey of opinion, practice and neuro-investigation at the end of 2007.

Background: The 2007 Cochrane review of therapeutic hypothermia for neonatal encephalopathy (NE) indicates a significant reduction in adverse outcome. UK National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidelines are awaited.

Objective: To benchmark current opinion and practice to inform future strategies for optimal knowledge transfer for therapeutic hypothermia.