Early, On-Treatment Levels and Dynamic Changes of Genomic Instability in Circulating Tumor DNA Predict Response to Treatment and Outcome in Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients.

Background: Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) offers high sensitivity and specificity in metastatic cancer. However, many ctDNA assays rely on specific mutations in recurrent genes or require the sequencing of tumor tissue, difficult to do in a metastatic disease. The purpose of this study was to define the predictive and prognostic values of the whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of ctDNA in metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

Variations in AP and frog-leg pelvic radiographs in a pediatric population.

Introduction: It is common for pediatric patients with a history of hip dysplasia to undergo anteroposterior (AP) and frog-leg (FL) lateral radiographs to monitor development of the hip. Because of sensitivity of pediatric tissues to ionizing radiation, we sought to document the relationship between AP and FL radiographs and to determine which image was better to assess acetabular dysplasia.

Methods: An Institutional Review Board-approved, retrospective review was conducted on 33 patients screened for hip dysplasia at a single institution.

Does active referral by a doctor or 12-Step peer improve 12-Step meeting attendance? Results from a pilot randomised control trial.

Background: Active engagement in 12-Step self-help groups (SHG) is associated with improvements in substance use outcomes during and after treatment, yet levels of participation in SHG meetings in the U.K. remain low.

Hydrostatic comparison of nonpenetrating titanium clips versus conventional suture for repair of spinal durotomies.

Study Design: Biomechanics.

Objective: To compare the hydrostatic strength of suture and nonpenetrating titanium clip repairs of standard spinal durotomies.

Summary Of Background Data: Dural tears are a frequent complication of spine surgery and can be associated with significant morbidity.

Love, eye contact and the developmental origins of empathy v. psychopathy.

Background: A propensity to attend to other people's emotions is a necessary condition for human empathy.

Aims: To test our hypothesis that psychopathic disorder begins as a failure to attend to the eyes of attachment figures, using a `love' scenario in young children.

Method: Children with oppositional defiant disorder, assessed for callous-unemotional traits, and a control group were observed in a love interaction with mothers.

Spinal duraplasty materials and hydrostasis: a biomechanical study: laboratory investigation.

Object: Dural tears are a frequent complication of spinal surgery and contribute to significant morbidity. Occasionally, dural tears cannot be closed primarily and dural patch grafts must be utilized. No data exist on the comparative immediate hydrostatic strength of various patch materials used alone or with a biological adhesive in a spinal dural tear model.

New estimates of the number of children living with substance misusing parents: results from UK national household surveys.

Background: The existing estimates of there being 250,000 - 350,000 children of problem drug users in the UK (ACMD, 2003) and 780,000 - 1.3 million children of adults with an alcohol problem (AHRSE, 2004) are extrapolations of treatment data alone or estimates from other countries, hence updated, local and broader estimates are needed.

Methods: The current work identifies profiles where the risk of harm to children could be increased by patterns of parental substance use and generates new estimates following secondary analysis of five UK national household surveys.

Involvement of the spine in patients with multiple hereditary exostoses.

Background: Extension of a vertebral exostosis into the spinal canal is rare, but many isolated cases have been reported in the literature. Three existing patients with multiple hereditary exostoses at our institution had development of neurologic findings and were found to have exostoses in the spinal canal. These findings led us to perform magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomographic scans for the remaining patients with multiple hereditary exostoses at our institution.

It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it: a qualitative study of advice for young cannabis users.

Introduction: Advice is a widely recommended and practised intervention with young drug users. Study of precisely how advice is given and received in any setting has, however, been limited.

Design And Methods: We qualitatively analysed 106 audio-recordings of advice sessions on cannabis use for young people within a randomised trial.

Glistenings in the single-piece, hydrophobic, acrylic intraocular lenses.

Purpose: To study glistenings in single-piece AcrySof (models SA60 and SN60; Alcon, Fort Worth, Texas, USA) intraocular lenses (IOLs).

Design: Observational, longitudinal study.

Methods: Consecutive patients with the SA60 were examined at 12, 24, and 36 months after surgery; those with the SN60 were examined 12 months after surgery.

Autosomal dominant cone dystrophy caused by a novel mutation in the GCAP1 gene (GUCA1A).

Purpose: To describe the clinical features and genetic analysis of a family with an autosomal dominant cone dystrophy (adCD).

Methods: Selected members of a family with an autosomal dominant cone dystrophy underwent ophthalmic evaluation. Blood samples were obtained, genomic DNA was isolated, and genomic fragments were amplified by PCR.