Publications by authors named "M E T A Koster"

Vasculitic neuropathy is caused by inflammatory destruction of nerve blood vessels resulting in nerve ischemia. Nerve vasculitis can be divided into two categories based on vessel size - large arteriole vasculitis (≥75 µm) and microvasculitis (<75 µm). Herein, we characterize the clinical features of nerve large-arteriole vasculitis compared to nerve microvasculitis.

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Nanoparticles have proven to be attractive carriers in therapeutic drug delivery since they can encapsulate, protect and stabilize a plethora of different drugs, thereby improving therapeutic efficacy and reducing side effects. However, specific targeting of drug-loaded nanoparticles to the tissue of interest and a timely and spatially controlled release of drugs on demand still represent a challenge. Recently, gas-filled microparticles, so-called antibubbles, have been developed which can efficiently encapsulate liquid drug droplets.

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Background And Context: Unplanned readmission within 30 days following elective spine surgery is a key indicator of quality of care, as readmissions often signal early complications or poor recovery. The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) utilizes this metric to assess hospital and surgeon performance.

Purpose: Here we aim to delineate quality of care metrics for full-endoscopic spine surgery (FESS) compared to traditional spine surgery.

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Due to demographic changes, a growing number of elderly patients with comorbidities will require spine surgery in the next decades. However, age and multimorbidity have been associated with considerably worse postoperative outcomes, and is often associated with surgical invasiveness. Full-endoscopic spine-surgery (FESS), as a cornerstone of contemporary minimally invasive surgery, has the potential to mitigate some of these disparities.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates vasculitic myopathy, a rare manifestation of vasculitis, to characterize its clinical features, lab results, and treatment outcomes using a retrospective review of patient records from 1980 to 2022.
  • - Out of 25 identified patients, most presented with proximal weakness and pain, with 80% showing myopathy as the first sign of vasculitis; significant findings included inflammation in muscle biopsies and elevated blood markers in some cases.
  • - Key findings include high instances of perivascular inflammation in biopsies, with substantial destruction noted in vessel walls; a notable proportion of patients also displayed signs of peripheral neuropathy.
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