Contribution of coronal vertebral and IVD wedging to Cobb angle changes in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis during growth.

Study Design: Prospective study BACKGROUND: Vertebral and intervertebral disc (IVD) wedging are often seen in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). However, the relationship between wedging and curve progression, and the change of wedging before bracing to final weaning is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the pattern and sequence of vertebral and IVD wedging development, and to determine the relationship between the change of wedging and curve progression in AIS during growth.

Role of Ultrasound in Low Back Pain: A Review.

Low back pain is one of most common musculoskeletal disorders around the world. One major problem clinicians face is the lack of objective assessment modalities. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are commonly utilized but are unable to clearly distinguish patients with low back pain from healthy patients with respect to abnormalities.

Multichromatic TTF staining characterizes cartilage matrix in osteoarthritis and bone development.

Various histological staining methods have been explored to detect the joint lesions in osteoarthritis (OA), but these histological stains cannot comprehensively present the comparatively complex structures of articular cartilage in knee OA. In addition, no integrated histological staining method can be used to evaluate efficiently both the subzone region and matrix composition in cartilage containing tissues. Therefore, in this study, a novel multichromatic staining method termed TTF staining, using Toluidine Blue (T), Tartrazine (T) and Fast Green (F) sequential combined staining for histological analysis, has been exploited to characterize the changes of matrix components and contents in cartilage during OA and in the bone development.

Inducing self-rotation of cells with natural and artificial melanin in a linearly polarized alternating current electric field.

The phenomenon of self-rotation observed in naturally and artificially pigmented cells under an applied linearly polarized alternating current (non-rotating) electrical field has been investigated. The repeatable and controllable rotation speeds of the cells were quantified and their dependence on dielectrophoretic parameters such as frequency, voltage, and waveform was studied. Moreover, the rotation behavior of the pigmented cells with different melanin content was compared to quantify the correlation between self-rotation and the presence of melanin.