Recombinant zoster vaccine (Shingrix): a new option for the prevention of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia.

Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a challenging condition for pain management specialists. The prevention of herpes zoster (HZ) and subsequent PHN in individuals aged 50 years and older, via the development of new vaccines, is an ongoing research project. The live zoster vaccine (LZV, Zostavax) was the first proof of concept that vaccination could prevent HZ, but LZV cannot be used in various immunecompromised patients.

Anatomical Feasibility of Right Oblique Approach for L5-S1 Oblique Lumbar Interbody Fusion.

Background: We compared left and right vascular anatomy at the L5-S1 disc space and validated the anatomical feasibility of the right oblique approach for L5-S1 oblique lumbar interbody fusion.

Methods: Axial T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging studies at the L5-S1 disc level were used to study 274 subjects (164 women and 110 men; average age, 62.97 years).

The effect of long-term oral dantrolene on the neuromuscular action of rocuronium: a case report.

Oral dantrolene causes a dose-dependent depression of skeletal muscle contractility. A 52-year-old man treated with oral dantrolene for spasticity after spinal cord injury was scheduled to undergo irrigation and drainage of a thigh abscess under general anesthesia. He had taken 50 mg oral dantrolene per day for 3 years.

From superspreaders to disease hotspots: linking transmission across hosts and space.

Since the identification and imprisonment of "Typhoid Mary," a woman who infected at least 47 people with typhoid in the early 1900s, epidemiologists have recognized that 'superspreading' hosts play a key role in disease epidemics. Such variability in transmission also exists among species within a community (amplification hosts) and among habitat patches across a landscape (disease 'hotspots'), underscoring the need for an integrative framework for studying transmission heterogeneity. Here, we synthesize literature on human, plant, and animal diseases to evaluate the relative contributions of host, pathogen, and environmental factors in driving transmission heterogeneity across hosts and space.

Characterizing microbial communities through space and time.

Until recently, the study of microbial diversity has mainly been limited to descriptive approaches, rather than predictive model-based analyses. The development of advanced analytical tools and decreasing cost of high-throughput multi-omics technologies has made the later approach more feasible. However, consensus is lacking as to which spatial and temporal scales best facilitate understanding of the role of microbial diversity in determining both public and environmental health.

Our microbial selves: what ecology can teach us.

Advances in DNA sequencing have allowed us to characterize microbial communities--including those associated with the human body--at a broader range of spatial and temporal scales than ever before. We can now answer fundamental questions that were previously inaccessible and use well-tested ecological theories to gain insight into changes in the microbiome that are associated with normal development and human disease. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ecosystems associated with our body follow trends identified in communities at other sites and scales, and thus studies of the microbiome benefit from ecological insight.