Time to return to play after high ankle sprains in collegiate football players: a prediction model.

Background: Determining the severity of high ankle sprains in athletes and predicting the time that an athlete can return to unrestricted sport activities following this injury remain significant challenges.

Purpose: The objectives of this study were (1) to determine if objective measurements of injury severity after high ankle sprains could predict the time to return to play in Division I football players and (2) to determine whether physical examination or diagnostic musculoskeletal ultrasound was more predictive of return to play. The hypothesis was that objective measures of injury severity of a high ankle sprain can be predictive of time to return to athletic participation in collegiate football players.

When do rotator cuff repairs fail? Serial ultrasound examination after arthroscopic repair of large and massive rotator cuff tears.

Background: Despite advances in arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tears, recurrent tears after repair of large and massive tears remain a significant clinical problem. The primary objective of this study was to define the timing of structural failure of surgically repaired large and massive rotator cuff tears by serial imaging with ultrasound. The secondary objective of this study was to investigate the association between recurrent tears and clinical outcome after rotator cuff repair.

Bone density of the greater tuberosity is decreased in rotator cuff disease with and without full-thickness tears.

Background: Despite the high prevalence of rotator cuff disease in the aging adult population, the basic mechanisms initiating the disease are not known. It is known that changes occur at both the bone and tendon after rotator cuff tears. However, no study has focused on early or "pretear" rotator cuff disease states.

Lung cells from neonates show a mesenchymal stem cell phenotype.

Rationale: Mesenchymal stem cells have been isolated from adult bone marrow, peripheral blood, adipose tissue, trabecular bone, articular synovium, and bronchial submucosa.

Objectives: We hypothesized that the lungs of premature infants undergoing mechanical ventilation contain fibroblast-like cells with features of mesenchymal stem cells.

Methods: Tracheal aspirate fluid from mechanically ventilated, premature (< 30 wk gestation) infants 7 days old or younger was obtained from routine suctioning and plated on plastic culture dishes.

Variation in optineurin (OPTN) allele frequencies between and within populations.

Purpose: To evaluate the extent to which mutations in the optineurin (OPTN) glaucoma gene play a role in glaucoma in different populations.

Methods: Case-controlled study of OPTN sequence variants in individuals with or without glaucoma in populations of different ancestral origins and evaluate previous OPTN reports. We analyzed 314 subjects with African, Asian, Caucasian and Hispanic ancestries included 229 cases of primary open-angle glaucoma, 51 cases of juvenile-onset open-angle glaucoma, 33 cases of normal tension glaucoma, and 371 controls.

Gene expression profile of human trabecular meshwork cells in response to long-term dexamethasone exposure.

Purpose: Topical use of dexamethasone has long been associated with steroid induced-glaucoma, although the mechanism is unknown. We applied a strict filtering of comparative microarray data to more than 18,000 genes to evaluate global gene expression of cultured human trabecular meshwork cells in response to treatment with dexamethasone.

Methods: Three human trabecular meshwork cell primary cultures from nonglaucomatous donors were incubated with and without dexamethasone for 21 days.

Mutations in TCF8 cause posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy and ectopic expression of COL4A3 by corneal endothelial cells.

Posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy (PPCD, also known as PPMD) is a rare disease involving metaplasia and overgrowth of corneal endothelial cells. In patients with PPCD, these cells manifest in an epithelial morphology and gene expression pattern, produce an aberrant basement membrane, and, sometimes, spread over the iris and nearby structures in a way that increases the risk for glaucoma. We previously mapped PPCD to a region (PPCD3) on chromosome 10 containing the gene that encodes the two-handed zinc-finger homeodomain transcription factor TCF8.