Publications by authors named "L N Cates"

Spinal cord trauma leads to the destruction of the highly organized cytoarchitecture that carries information along the axis of the spinal column. Currently, there are no clinically accepted strategies that can help regenerate severed axons after spinal cord injury (SCI). Hydrogels are soft biomaterials with high water content that are widely used as scaffolds to interface with the central nervous system (CNS).

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Article Synopsis
  • Traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) leads to quick loss of neurological function, making recovery prediction challenging.
  • The study used contrast-enhanced ultrasound to assess intraspinal blood flow disruption in a rodent model, finding that this disruption was linked to injury severity and locomotor function after 8 weeks.
  • In 27 human cases with varying tSCI severity, results confirmed correlations between ultrasound metrics and both injury severity and functional recovery after 6 months, suggesting potential for these ultrasound metrics in prognostic assessments, although further studies are needed.
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Introduction: The United States has experienced substantial increases in opioid use for more than two decades. This growth has impacted rural areas where overdoses have risen drastically during this time period and more often involve prescription opioids than in urban areas. Medications for opioid use disorders (MOUDs) are highly underutilized in rural settings due to lack of access, inadequate prescribing, and stigma.

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Background: Continuation or initiation of MOUDs during incarceration could improve post-release outcomes by preventing return to opioid use and reducing risk of overdose. People with OUD involved in the criminal legal system are a vulnerable population, yet little research has comprehensively examined post-release outcomes associated with receiving MOUDs in jail and prison settings.

Methods: The authors conducted a review of published peer-reviewed literature on post-release outcomes associated with the use of MOUDs in correctional settings to determine implications for further research and policy.

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Objective: Acute traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) is followed by a prolonged period of secondary neuroglial cell death. Neuroprotective interventions, such as surgical spinal cord decompression, aim to mitigate secondary injury. In this study, the authors explore whether the effect size of posttraumatic neuroprotective spinal cord decompression varies with injury severity.

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