Publications by authors named "Ralph Ortiz"

Background: Sustained acoustic medicine (SAM) is a noninvasive long-term treatment that provides essential mechanical and thermal stimulus to accelerate soft tissue healing, alleviate pain, and improve physical activity. SAM increases localized deep tissue temperature, blood flow, cellular proliferation, migration, and nutrition exchange, resulting in reduced inflammation and an increased rate of tissue regeneration.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of SAM treatment of discogenic back pain in the lower spinal column to reduce pain, improve quality of life, and lower pharmacotherapy use.

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Background: Musculoskeletal injuries are common in collegiate, professional, and military personnel and require expedited recovery to reduce lost work time. Sustained acoustic medicine (SAM) provides continuous long-duration ultrasound at 3MHz and 132mW/cm. The treatment is frequently prescribed to treat acute and chronic soft tissue injuries and reduce pain.

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Background: Sustained Acoustic Medicine (SAM) is an emerging, non-invasive, non-narcotic, home-use ultrasound therapy for the daily treatment of joint pain. The aim of this multi-site clinical study was to examine the efficacy of long-duration continuous ultrasound combined with a 1% diclofenac ultrasound gel patch in treating pain and improving function in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Methods: The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) were followed.

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Purpose: Low-intensity continuous ultrasound (LICUS) is an emerging high-dosimetry ultrasound-based therapy for accelerated tissue healing and the treatment of myofascial pain. In this study, LICUS treatment is clinically evaluated for chronic upper neck and shoulder pain in a randomized, multi-site, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Patients And Methods: CONSORT guidelines were followed in conducting and reporting the clinical trial.

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Background: Wearable long-duration low-intensity ultrasound is an emerging non-invasive and non-narcotic therapy for the daily treatment of musculoskeletal pain. The aim of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was to examine whether long-duration low-intensity ultrasound was effective in treating pain and improving function in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Methods: Ninety patients with moderate to severe knee pain and radiographically confirmed knee osteoarthritis (Kellgren-Lawrence grade I/II) were randomized for treatment with active (n = 55) or placebo (n = 35) devices applied daily to the treated knee.

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Osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of disability in the aging population. Long duration, low intensity therapeutic ultrasound has had promising impact in animal models to slow the progression of the disease and provide joint relief. Two pilot studies were conducted using a novel, wearable platform for delivering ultrasound to evaluate the potential clinical benefits of ultrasound therapy on knee osteoarthritis.

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Ultrasound therapy for pain and healing is a versatile treatment modality for musculoskeletal conditions that is used daily in rehabilitation clinics around the world. Our group designed and constructed a wearable, battery-operated, low-intensity therapeutic ultrasound (LITUS) device that patients could self-apply and operate during daily activity for up to 6 h. Thirty patients with chronic trapezius myofascial pain evaluated the LITUS system in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, 10-d study under institutional review board approval.

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The associated poor prognosis and potentially aggressive behavior of mantle cell lymphoma and its blastoid variants make differentiation from other non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas especially important. We present a case of mantle cell lymphoma with a marked leukemic component, which demonstrated both a typical nodular mantle cell pattern and Burkitt lymphoma within a single lymph node removed at the time of splenectomy. The presence of CD5, CD10, and Bcl-1 co-expression by immunohistochemistry and detectable t(11;14) and cMYC gene rearrangement by FISH analyses in the Burkitt region support a transformation of mantle cell lymphoma over a concomitant malignancy.

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