Ureteral stents are used to relieve acute or chronic urinary tract obstructions and may be complicated by stent encrustation. The development of encrustation is related to indwelling time, stent composition, bacterial biofilm formation, malabsorptive disorders, metabolic disorders (hypercalcemia, hyperuricosuria, pH imbalance), and cancer. Without intervention, encrustation may lead to luminal obstruction, infection, stent fracture, or ureteral avulsion during removal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Segmental large volume bone loss resulting from fracture or osseous neoplasia is a major challenge to orthopedic surgeons and there is an ongoing quest to identify treatments that optimize healing. To advance treatment, large animal translational models-such as the ovine critical-sized tibia defect model-are instrumental for testing of novel scaffolds for bone regeneration. However, little standardization in the implants utilized for defect stabilization has been determined and current commercially available implants may be inadequate to replicate the strength of the native tibia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The aim of this study is to conduct a meta-analysis to assess the efficacy of yttrium-90 selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) in treating patients with breast cancer with hepatic metastasis.
Method: PubMed and The Cochrane Library were queried from establishment to January 2021. The following keywords were implemented: "breast", "yttrium", and "radioembolization".
Unlabelled: Approximately 20% of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) harbor mutations in the gene calreticulin (CALR), with 80% of those mutations classified as either type I or type II. While type II CALR-mutant proteins retain many of the Ca2+ binding sites present in the wild-type protein, type I CALR-mutant proteins lose these residues. The functional consequences of this differential loss of Ca2+ binding sites remain unexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Although mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have increased our understanding of the molecular basis of the disease, none of those models represent late-onset Alzheimer's Disease which accounts for >90% of AD cases, and no therapeutics developed in the mouse (with the possible exceptions of aduhelm/aducanumab and gantenerumab) have succeeded in preventing or reversing the disease. This technology has allowed much progress in understanding the molecular basis of AD. To further enhance our understanding, we used wild-type rabbit (with a nearly identical amino acid sequence for amyloid as in humans) to model LOAD by stressing risk factors including age, hypercholesterolemia, and elevated blood glucose levels (BGLs), upon an ε3-like isoform of apolipoprotein.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground Both drug-coated balloon (DCB) angioplasty and conventional plain balloon angioplasty (PBA) can be implemented to treat hemodialysis dysfunction. The present study aims to compare the safety and efficacy of these 2 approaches by conducting a meta-analysis of available randomized controlled trials. Methods and Results PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases were queried from establishment to January 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF