Radiographic predictors of lead conductor fracture.

Background: Lead fracture is a limiting factor in high voltage lead durability. Fractures noted with the Medtronic Fidelis leads provide an opportunity to examine factors captured on implant chest x-ray that correlate with risk for lead conductor fracture. We evaluated contributory factors in a large population of fractures.

Mechanisms underlying reorganization of fractured tactile cerebellar maps after deafferentation in developing and adult rats.

Our previous studies showed that fractured tactile cerebellar maps in rats reorganize after deafferentation during development and in adulthood while maintaining a fractured somatotopy. Several months after deafferentation of the infraorbital branch of the trigeminal nerve, the missing upper lip innervation is replaced in the tactile maps in the granule cell layer of crus IIa. The predominant input into the denervated area is always the upper incisor representation.