A Pilot Study Investigating the Use of Serum Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein to Monitor Changes in Brain White Matter Integrity After Repetitive Head Hits During a Single Collegiate Football Game.

Repetitive head hits (RHHs) in sports and military settings are increasingly recognized as a risk factor for adverse neurological outcomes, but they are not currently tracked. Blood-based biomarkers of concussion have recently been shown to increase after nonconcussive RHHs during a single sporting contest, raising the possibility that they could be used in real time to monitor the brain's early response to repeated asymptomatic head hits. To test this hypothesis, we measured GFAP in serum immediately before (T0), immediately after (T1) and 45 min (T2) after a single collegiate football game in 30 athletes.

Effects of Physical Exertion on Early Changes in Blood-Based Brain Biomarkers: Implications for the Acute Point of Care Diagnosis of Concussion.

Blood-based brain biomarkers (BBM) such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) have potential to aid in the diagnosis of concussion. Recently developed point-of-care test devices would enable BBMs to be measured in field settings such military and sport environments within minutes of a suspicious head hit. However, head hits in these environments typically occur in the setting of vigorous physical exertion, which can itself increase BBMs levels.

A systematic review of systematic review methodology in plastic surgery journals.

Introduction: Systematic reviews (SR) and meta-analyses (MA) are described as the top level of evidence in clinical research and are commonplace in plastic surgery literature. Their quality is limited both by the reliability of primary studies and the method of aggregating data. This study analysed the overall quality of SR's in plastic surgery and identified influencing factors.

CSNAP Is a Stoichiometric Subunit of the COP9 Signalosome.

The highly conserved COP9 signalosome (CSN) complex is a key regulator of all cullin-RING-ubiquitin ligases (CRLs), the largest family of E3 ubiquitin ligases. Until now, it was accepted that the CSN is composed of eight canonical components. Here, we report the discovery of an additional integral and stoichiometric subunit that had thus far evaded detection, and we named it CSNAP (CSN acidic protein).

Ectopic hepatic tissue presented as a posterior mediastinal mass.

We present a young patient with respiratory complaints that was found to have a mass in her right posterior mediastinum. The mass was diagnosed to be ectopic histologically unremarkable hepatic tissue. We have also reviewed several of the few intrathoracic ectopic liver cases in the literature, along with a brief discussion of the significance of such a finding.

Determinants of functional outcome after simple and complex acetabular fractures involving the posterior wall.

We have evaluated the functional, clinical and radiological outcome of patients with simple and complex acetabular fractures involving the posterior wall, and identified factors associated with an adverse outcome. We reviewed 128 patients treated operatively for a fracture involving the posterior wall of the acetabulum between 1982 and 1999. The Musculoskeletal Functional Assessment and Short-Form 36 scores, the presence of radiological arthritis and complications were assessed as a function of injury, treatment and clinical variables.