Effects of Augmented Reality on Thoracolumbar Pedicle Screw Instrumentation Across Different Levels of Surgical Experience.

Objective: Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging technology that may accelerate skill acquisition and improve accuracy of thoracolumbar pedicle screw placements. We aimed to quantify the relative assistance of AR compared with freehand (FH) pedicle screw accuracy across different surgical experience levels.

Methods: A spine fellowship-trained and board-certified attending neurosurgeon, postgraduate year 4 neurosurgery resident, and second-year medical student placed 32 FH and 32 AR-assisted thoracolumbar pedicle screws in 3 cadavers.

Improved Accuracy and Lowered Learning Curve of Ventricular Targeting Using Augmented Reality-Phantom and Cadaveric Model Testing.

Background: Augmented reality (AR) has demonstrated significant potential in neurosurgical cranial, spine, and teaching applications. External ventricular drain (EVD) placement remains a common procedure, but with error rates in targeting between 10% and 40%.

Objective: To evaluate Novarad VisAR guidance system for the placement of EVDs in phantom and cadaveric models.

Augmented Reality Spine Surgery Navigation: Increasing Pedicle Screw Insertion Accuracy for Both Open and Minimally Invasive Spine Surgeries.

Study Design: Collectively, seven cadavers were instrumented with 124 thoracolumbar pedicle screws using VisAR augmented reality/guidance. Sixty-five screws were inserted into four donors using open dissection spine surgery. Fifty-nine screws were positioned in three donors with a minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) procedure.

The application of augmented reality-based navigation for accurate target acquisition of deep brain sites: advances in neurosurgical guidance.

Objective: The objective of this study is to quantify the navigational accuracy of an advanced augmented reality (AR)-based guidance system for neurological surgery, biopsy, and/or other minimally invasive neurological surgical procedures.

Methods: Five burr holes were drilled through a plastic cranium, and 5 optical fiducials (AprilTags) printed with CT-visible ink were placed on the frontal, temporal, and parietal bones of a human skull model. Three 0.

Use of augmented reality for image-guided spine procedures.

Purpose: Because of its ability to superimpose imaging data on a patient, while anchoring the user's view to the immediate surroundings, augmented reality (AR) has the potential to dramatically improve the accuracy and reduce the time required for preoperative planning and performance of minimally invasive spine surgeries and procedures. Described and reported herein is the direct clinical application of AR navigation on a series of common percutaneous image-guided spine procedures.

Materials And Methods: AR, including a "virtual needle" (VN) asset, was used to guide and navigate a total of 18 procedures performed on 10 patients.

The use of a binary chelate formulation: Could gadolinium based linear contrast agents be rescued by the addition of zinc selective chelates?

Tissue and bone retention of gadolinium based contrast agents (GBCAs) has become a clinical concern because of the potential short and long term toxic effects of free gadolinium. This is a critical problem for most open-chain agents that more readily transmetallate in vivo, in comparison to macrocyclic compounds. Gadolinium diethylene tri-aminepentaacetic acid bis-glucosamide (Gd-DTPA-BIGA) is an experimental, open-chain contrast agent which has a significantly increased relaxivity coefficient in comparison to other GBCAs.

Complete Mitochondrial Genome Sequencing of a Burial from a Romano-Christian Cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt: Preliminary Indications.

The curse of ancient Egyptian DNA was lifted by a recent study which sequenced the mitochondrial genomes (mtGenome) of 90 ancient Egyptians from the archaeological site of Abusir el-Meleq. Surprisingly, these ancient inhabitants were more closely related to those from the Near East than to contemporary Egyptians. It has been accepted that the timeless highway of the Nile River seeded Egypt with African genetic influence, well before pre-Dynastic times.

Mitochondria, prostate cancer, and biopsy sampling error.

Mitochondria and their associated genome are emerging as sophisticated indicators of prostate cancer biology. Alterations in the mitochondrial genome (mtgenome) have been implicated in cell proliferation, metastatic behavior, androgen independence, as a signal for apoptosis, and as a predictor of biochemical recurrence. Somatic mutation patterns in complete mtgenomes are associated with prostate specific antigen levels (PSA) in prostate cancer patients and a large-scale mtgenome deletion (3.

Paired ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive breast cancer lesions in the D-loop of the mitochondrial genome indicate a cancerization field effect.

Alterations in the mitochondrial genome have been chronicled in most solid tumors, including breast cancer. The intent of this paper is to compare and document somatic mitochondrial D-loop mutations in paired samples of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and invasive breast cancer (IBC) indicating a potential breast ductal epithelial cancerization field effect. Paired samples of these histopathologies were laser-captured microdissected (LCM) from biopsy, lumpectomy, and mastectomy tissues.

Mitochondrial and nuclear genomics and the emergence of personalized medicine.

Developing early detection biosensors for disease has been the long‒held goal of the Human Genome Project, but with little success. Conversely, the biological properties of the mitochondrion coupled with the relative simplicity of the mitochondrial genome give this organelle extraordinary functionality as a biosensor and places the field of mitochondrial genomics in a position of strategic advantage to launch significant advances in personalized medicine. Numerous factors make the mitochondrion organelle uniquely suited to be an early detection biosensor with applications in oncology as well as many other aspects of human health and disease.

3.4 kb mitochondrial genome deletion serves as a surrogate predictive biomarker for prostate cancer in histopathologically benign biopsy cores.

Recently, we described a 3.4-kb mitochondrial genome deletion having significance for identifying malignant and benign prostate tissues (p < 0.001).

Titanic's unknown child: the critical role of the mitochondrial DNA coding region in a re-identification effort.

This report describes a re-examination of the remains of a young male child recovered in the Northwest Atlantic following the loss of the Royal Mail Ship Titanic in 1912 and buried as an unknown in Halifax, Nova Scotia shortly thereafter. Following exhumation of the grave in 2001, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region 1 sequencing and odontological examination of the extremely limited skeletal remains resulted in the identification of the child as Eino Viljami Panula, a 13-month-old Finnish boy. This paper details recent and more extensive mitochondrial genome analyses that indicate the remains are instead most likely those of an English child, Sidney Leslie Goodwin.

Integrated DNA and fingerprint analyses in the identification of 60-year-old mummified human remains discovered in an Alaskan glacier.

This report describes the identification of a merchant mariner who perished in 1948 when Northwest Airlines Flight 4422, a DC-4 carrying 24 seamen and six crew members crashed into Mount Sanford, Alaska. Fifty-one years later, a human forearm and hand were found close by the wreckage of the plane, prompting identification efforts using DNA and fingerprints. There were significant challenges to both the fingerprint and DNA analyses.

Facile whole mitochondrial genome resequencing from nipple aspirate fluid using MitoChip v2.0.

Background: Mutations in the mitochondrial genome (mtgenome) have been associated with many disorders, including breast cancer. Nipple aspirate fluid (NAF) from symptomatic women could potentially serve as a minimally invasive sample for breast cancer screening by detecting somatic mutations in this biofluid. This study is aimed at 1) demonstrating the feasibility of NAF recovery from symptomatic women, 2) examining the feasibility of sequencing the entire mitochondrial genome from NAF samples, 3) cross validation of the Human mitochondrial resequencing array 2.

Mitochondrial genome deletion aids in the identification of false- and true-negative prostate needle core biopsy specimens.

We report the usefulness of a 3.4-kb mitochondrial genome deletion (3.4 mtdelta) for molecular definition of benign, malignant, and proximal to malignant (PTM) prostate needle biopsy specimens.

The mitochondrial genome: a biosensor for early cancer detection?

Mutations in the mitochondrial genome have been reported as biomarkers for the detection of cancer. Hallmarks of cancer development include the accumulation of genetic alterations in the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. Damage to mitochondria affects energy metabolism, generation of reactive oxygen species, apoptosis, cell growth and other processes that contribute to the neoplastic process.

Clinical implications and utility of field cancerization.

Cancer begins with multiple cumulative epigenetic and genetic alterations that sequencially transform a cell, or a group of cells in a particular organ. The early genetic events might lead to clonal expansion of pre-neoplastic daughter cells in a particular tumor field. Subsequent genomic changes in some of these cells drive them towards the malignant phenotype.

Analysis of potential cancer biomarkers in mitochondrial DNA.

Understanding mitochondrial biology is a fundamental research goal in human genetics and medicine. The use of mitochondria to serve as a biomarker is rapidly expanding in disciplines ranging from cancer, rare metabolic diseases, aging, the tracing of human migration patterns in antiquity, population characterization using maternal markers, and human identification. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations occur frequently in cancer, and there is an important need for validating mtDNA mutations as cancer biomarkers for the detection of early-stage disease.

The pseudo-mitochondrial genome influences mistakes in heteroplasmy interpretation.

Background: Nuclear mitochondrial pseudogenes (numts) are a potential source of contamination during mitochondrial DNA PCR amplification. This possibility warrants careful experimental design and cautious interpretation of heteroplasmic results.

Results: Here we report the cloning and sequencing of numts loci, amplified from human tissue and rho-zero (rho0) cells (control) with primers known to amplify the mitochondrial genome.

Somatic mitochondrial DNA mutations in prostate cancer and normal appearing adjacent glands in comparison to age-matched prostate samples without malignant histology.

Studies of somatic mitochondrial DNA mutations have become an important aspect of cancer research because these mutations might have functional significance and/or serve as a biosensor for tumor detection. Here we report somatic mitochondrial DNA mutations from three specific tissue types (tumor, adjacent benign, and distant benign) recovered from 24 prostatectomy samples. Needle biopsy tissue from 12 individuals referred for prostate biopsy, yet histologically benign (symptomatic benign), were used as among individual control samples.

Mitochondrial DNA as a potential tool for early cancer detection.

The recent surge in mitochondrial research has been driven by the identification of mitochondria-associated diseases and the role of mitochondria in apoptosis. Both of these aspects have identified mitochondrial analysis as a vital component of medical research. Moreover, mitochondria have been implicated in the process of carcinogenesis because of their vital role in energy production, nuclear-cytoplasmic signal integration and control of metabolic pathways.

A maternal line study investigating the 4977-bp mitochondrial DNA deletion.

The most frequently reported species of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage associated with ageing is the 4977-bp 'Common Deletion'. However, recent observations have raised several issues within the deletion debate namely: the significance of the 4977-bp deletion (CD) as a universal DNA marker of ageing and mitochondrial dysfunction; and the possibility for maternal transmission of deletions in humans. Previous attempts at answering these questions have been limited because many investigations have been cross-sectional studies of unrelated individuals.

The DNA site utilized by bacteriophage P22 for initiation of DNA packaging.

Virion proteins recognize their cognate nucleic acid for encapsidation into virions through recognition of a specific nucleotide sequence contained within that nucleic acid. Viruses like bacteriophage P22, which have partially circularly permuted, double-stranded virion DNAs, encapsidate DNA through processive series of packaging events in which DNA is recognized for packaging only once at the beginning of the series. Thus a single DNA recognition event programmes the encapsidation of multiple virion chromosomes.