Automatic registration with continuous pose updates for marker-less surgical navigation in spine surgery.

Established surgical navigation systems for pedicle screw placement have been proven to be accurate, but still reveal limitations in registration or surgical guidance. Registration of preoperative data to the intraoperative anatomy remains a time-consuming, error-prone task that includes exposure to harmful radiation. Surgical guidance through conventional displays has well-known drawbacks, as information cannot be presented in-situ and from the surgeon's perspective.

Random and Adversarial Bit Error Robustness: Energy-Efficient and Secure DNN Accelerators.

Deep neural network (DNN) accelerators received considerable attention in recent years due to the potential to save energy compared to mainstream hardware. Low-voltage operation of DNN accelerators allows to further reduce energy consumption, however, causes bit-level failures in the memory storing the quantized weights. Furthermore, DNN accelerators are vulnerable to adversarial attacks on voltage controllers or individual bits.

Classification of airborne 3D point clouds regarding separation of vegetation in complex environments.

Classification of outdoor point clouds is an intensely studied topic, particularly with respect to the separation of vegetation from the terrain and manmade structures. In the presence of many overhanging and vertical structures, the (relative) height is no longer a reliable criterion for such a separation. An alternative would be to apply supervised classification; however, thousands of examples are typically required for appropriate training.

SpineDepth: A Multi-Modal Data Collection Approach for Automatic Labelling and Intraoperative Spinal Shape Reconstruction Based on RGB-D Data.

Computer aided orthopedic surgery suffers from low clinical adoption, despite increased accuracy and patient safety. This can partly be attributed to cumbersome and often radiation intensive registration methods. Emerging RGB-D sensors combined with artificial intelligence data-driven methods have the potential to streamline these procedures.

FXR modulates the gut-vascular barrier by regulating the entry sites for bacterial translocation in experimental cirrhosis.

Background & Aims: Pathological bacterial translocation (PBT) in cirrhosis is the hallmark of spontaneous bacterial infections, increasing mortality several-fold. Increased intestinal permeability is known to contribute to PBT in cirrhosis, although the role of the mucus layer has not been addressed in detail. A clear route of translocation for luminal intestinal bacteria is yet to be defined, but we hypothesize that the recently described gut-vascular barrier (GVB) is impaired in experimental portal hypertension, leading to increased accessibility of the vascular compartment for translocating bacteria.

Clinical Practice Guideline (Update): Earwax (Cerumen Impaction) Executive Summary.

The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) has published a supplement to this issue of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery featuring the updated Clinical Practice Guideline: Earwax (Cerumen Impaction). To assist in implementing the guideline recommendations, this article summarizes the rationale, purpose, and key action statements. The 11 recommendations emphasize proper ear hygiene, diagnosis of cerumen impaction, factors that modify management, evaluating the need for intervention, and proper treatment.

Clinical Practice Guideline (Update): Earwax (Cerumen Impaction).

Objective This update of the 2008 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation cerumen impaction clinical practice guideline provides evidence-based recommendations on managing cerumen impaction. Cerumen impaction is defined as an accumulation of cerumen that causes symptoms, prevents assessment of the ear, or both. Changes from the prior guideline include a consumer added to the development group; new evidence (3 guidelines, 5 systematic reviews, and 6 randomized controlled trials); enhanced information on patient education and counseling; a new algorithm to clarify action statement relationships; expanded action statement profiles to explicitly state quality improvement opportunities, confidence in the evidence, intentional vagueness, and differences of opinion; an enhanced external review process to include public comment and journal peer review; and 3 new key action statements on managing cerumen impaction that focus on primary prevention, contraindicated intervention, and referral and coordination of care.

Differential effects of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ on oral squamous cell carcinomas in vitro.

Objective: The inverse association between vitamin D and cancer risk is well-established, but the relationship with oral cancer is less well-understood. To further the understanding of these relationships, this study sought to evaluate any growth-inhibiting effects of vitamin D on well-characterized oral cancers.

Methods: This study utilized 1,25-dihydroxy Vitamin D3 to evaluate any changes in growth using CAL27, SCC15, and SCC25 oral cancer cell lines at physiological and supraphysiological concentrations.

Clinical practice guideline: cerumen impaction.

Objective: This guideline provides evidence-based recommendations on managing cerumen impaction, defined as an accumulation of cerumen that causes symptoms, prevents assessment of the ear, or both. We recognize that the term "impaction" suggests that the ear canal is completely obstructed with cerumen and that our definition of cerumen impaction does not require a complete obstruction. However, cerumen impaction is the preferred term since it is consistently used in clinical practice and in the published literature to describe symptomatic cerumen or cerumen that prevents assessment of the ear.

Using a multidisciplinary team and clinical redesign to improve blood pressure control in patients with diabetes.

Objective: Optimal blood pressure (BP) control in patients with diabetes poses a challenge in primary care clinics because of the complexity of the disease and competing patient care demands. We used a multidisciplinary team to standardize and improve hypertension care for patients with diabetes by implementing a visual and action-oriented high BP prompt, collaborative practice agreement, medication intensification protocol, and home BP monitoring machine loan program.

Design: Prospective, pre-/poststudy.

Acoustic radiation force impulse imaging of thermally- and chemically-induced lesions in soft tissues: preliminary ex vivo results.

The ability of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging to visualize thermally- and chemically-induced lesions in soft tissues was investigated. Lesions were induced in freshly excised bovine liver samples. Chemical lesions were induced via the injection of formaldehyde and thermal lesions were created using a radiofrequency (RF) ablation system.

Acoustic radiation force impulse imaging of in vivo vastus medialis muscle under varying isometric load.

Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) imaging is a method for characterizing local variations in tissue mechanical properties. In this method, a single ultrasonic transducer array is used to both apply temporally short localized radiation forces within tissue and to track the resulting displacements through time. Images of tissue displacement immediately after force cessation, maximum tissue displacement, the time it takes for the tissue to reach its maximum displacement, and the recovery time constant of the tissue are generated from the ARFI data sets.

[Use of the TDMAC heparin shunt for operations on the descending thoracic aorta (author's transl)].

This report summarizes our experience with the TDMAC heparin shunt for aortic bypass in descending thoracic aortic surgery. Between 1977 and 1981 twenty-four operations were performed with this shunt (19 men, 4 women, mean age 42 age). Indications for surgery were acute traumatic aortic rupture (6 patients), chronic aortic rupture (6 patients), acute aortic dissection (1 patient), chronic aortic dissection (4 patients), atherosclerotic aneurysms (3 patients), aortic aneurysms combined with PDA (1 patient), aortic aneurysm secondary to coarctation repair (1 patient), and infection of a vascular prosthesis (1 patient).

Oropharyngeal gonorrhea during pregnancy.

The frequency of oropharyngeal infections with Neisseria gonorrhoeae in pregnant women was studied in two prenatal clinics in Bandkok, Thailand. A third group of women visiting a dental clinic on a routine basis was included for comparison purposes. Group I, from an American dependent clinic, had an oropharyngeal infection rate of 15% while only 0.

Changing penicillin resistance of the gonococcus in Thailand.

Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of penicillin in units per milliliter were determined for 2.241 gonococcal isolates submitted to the SEATO Medical Research Laboratory between January 1, 1972, and December 31, 1974. Isolates were separated into 3 groups, determined by the calender year in which they were submitted.