Is Magnetic Resonance Imaging Overused Among Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty?

Introduction: With increasing healthcare costs, it is important to quantify the number of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients who have MRIs that are not considered clinically necessary. The purpose of this study was to determine the number of unnecessary preconsultation MRIs done among TKA patients at our institution.

Methods: Eight hundred and sixty-nine patients who underwent a primary TKA were identified.

Algae-fungi symbioses and bacteria-fungi co-exclusion drive tree species-specific differences in canopy bark microbiomes.

With over 3 trillion trees, forest ecosystems comprise nearly one-third of the terrestrial surface of the Earth. Very little attention has been given to the exploration of the above-ground plant microbiome of trees, its complex trophic interactions, and variations among tree species. To address this knowledge gap, we applied a primer-independent shotgun metatranscriptomic approach to assess the entire living canopy bark microbiome comprising prokaryotic and eukaryotic primary producers, decomposers, and various groups of consumers.

Microplastics in a small river: Occurrence and influencing factors along the river Oker, Northern Germany.

Much attention regarding the environmental pollution by plastics had focused on the Oceans. More recently, contamination of freshwater ecosystems has been addressed but information from smaller rivers in moderately populated catchments is still comparatively scarce. This study explored the microplastic (MP) occurrence in the small regional river Oker, Northern Germany (catchment area 1822 km, population of ca.