Development of the cervical myelopathy severity index: a new patient reported outcome measure to quantify impairments and functional limitations.

Background Context: Existing degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) severity scales have significant shortcomings, creating a strong impetus for the development of a practical measurement tool with sound psychometric properties.

Purpose: This work reports the item generation and reduction of the Cervical Myelopathy Severity Index (CMSI), a new DCM patient-reported outcome measure of symptoms and functional limitations.

Design: Prospective observational study.

A Practical Classification System for Acute Cervical Spinal Cord Injury Based on a Three-Phased Modified Delphi Process From the AOSpine Spinal Cord Injury Knowledge Forum.

Study Design: A modified Delphi study.

Objective: To assess current practice patterns in the management of cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) and develop a simplified, practical classification system which offers ease of use in the acute setting, incorporates modern diagnostic tools and provides utility in determining treatment strategies for cervical SCI.

Methods: A three-phase modified Delphi procedure was performed between April 2020 and December 2021.

Incidence, risk factors, outcomes, and clinical management of BK viremia in the modern era of kidney transplantation.

BK viremia is endemic among kidney transplant recipients (KTRs). Incidence, risk factors, outcomes, and clinical management of detectable versus high BK viremia have not been considered previously in KTR in the modern era. This observational study examined KTR transplanted between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2016.

Right Lobe Versus Left Lobe Living Donor Liver Transplantation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Donor and Recipient Outcomes.

Background: Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is an established treatment for advanced liver disease. Whether right lobe (RL) or left lobe (LL) LDLT provides the best outcomes for donors and recipients remains contentious.

Methods: MedLine, Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Central were searched to identify studies comparing RL- and LL-LDLT and reporting donor and/or recipient outcomes.

Sample Preparation using a Lipid Monolayer Method for Electron Crystallographic Studies.

Electron crystallography is a powerful tool for high-resolution structure determination. Macromolecules such as soluble or membrane proteins can be grown into highly ordered two-dimensional (2D) crystals under favorable conditions. The quality of the grown 2D crystals is crucial to the resolution of the final reconstruction via 2D image processing.

The Impact of Riluzole on Neurobehavioral Outcomes in Preclinical Models of Traumatic and Nontraumatic Spinal Cord Injury: Results From a Systematic Review of the Literature.

Study Design: Systematic review.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of riluzole on neurobehavioral outcomes in preclinical models of nontraumatic and traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI).

Methods: An extensive search of the literature was conducted in Medline, EMBASE, and Medline in Process.

The discrepancy between functional outcome and self-reported health status after surgery for degenerative cervical myelopathy.

Introduction: Surgery for degenerative cervical myelopathy has shown not only to halt neurologic deterioration, but also to improve functional impairments. Despite these improvements, some patients may be dissatisfied with their outcomes. This study aims to (1) investigate discrepancies between postoperative clinical measures and self-reported health status, and (2) identify important predictors of such discrepancies.

Efficacy, safety, and economics of bracing after spine surgery: a systematic review of the literature.

Background Context: Bracing is often used after spinal surgery to immobilize the spine, improve fusion, and relieve pain. However, controversy exists regarding the efficacy, necessity, and safety of various bracing techniques in the postsurgical setting.

Purpose: In this systematic review, we aimed to compare the effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness of postoperative bracing versus no postoperative bracing after spinal surgery in patients with several common operative spinal pathologies.

Identification of a single base-pair mutation of TAA (Stop codon) → GAA (Glu) that causes light chain extension in a CHO cell derived IgG1.

We describe here the identification of a stop codon TAA (Stop) → GAA (Glu) = Stop221E mutation on the light chain of a recombinant IgG1 antibody expressed in a Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line. The extended light chain variants, which were caused by translation beyond the mutated stop codon to the next alternative in-frame stop codon, were observed by mass spectra analysis. The abnormal peptide peaks present in tryptic and chymotryptic LC-MS peptide mapping were confirmed by N-terminal sequencing as C-terminal light chain extension peptides.

A chemical genomics screen to discover genes that modulate neural stem cell differentiation.

The authors designed a chemical genomics screen with the aim of understanding genes and pathways that modulate neural stem/precursor cell differentiation. Multipotent mouse neural precursor cells isolated from cortices of embryonic day 12 (E12) embryos were subjected to spontaneous differentiation triggered by growth factor withdrawal. A quantitative whole-well immunofluorescence assay was set up to screen tool compound sets to identify small molecules with potent, dose-dependent, and reproducible effects on increasing neural stem cell differentiation toward neuronal lineage.