Automated magnetic resonance imaging-based grading of the lumbar intervertebral disc and facet joints.

Background: Degeneration of both intervertebral discs (IVDs) and facet joints in the lumbar spine has been associated with low back pain, but whether and how IVD/joint degeneration contributes to pain remains an open question. Joint degeneration can be identified by pairing T1 and T2 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with analysis techniques such as Pfirrmann grades (IVD degeneration) and Fujiwara scores (facet degeneration). However, these grades are subjective, prompting the need to develop an automated technique to enhance inter-rater reliability.

Joint engineering-medical school programs prepare physicians for clinical challenges: An observational study.

Background And Aims: Modern health care faces a plethora of challenges including the delivery of quality and cost-efficient care. Physicians are first-hand observers of clinical problems but may lack the requisite training and education to develop innovations that improve patient care. Few medical education programs address innovation, leadership, and transdisciplinary collaboration despite being highlighted by national medical and education organizations including the American Medical Association.

Cervical facet capsular ligament mechanics: Estimations based on subject-specific anatomy and kinematics.

Background: To understand the facet capsular ligament's (FCL) role in cervical spine mechanics, the interactions between the FCL and other spinal components must be examined. One approach is to develop a subject-specific finite element (FE) model of the lower cervical spine, simulating the motion segments and their components' behaviors under physiological loading conditions. This approach can be particularly attractive when a patient's anatomical and kinematic data are available.

MRI-based degeneration grades for lumbar facet joints do not correlate with cartilage mechanics.

Background: Lumbar facet joint arthritis is characterized by degeneration of articular cartilage, loss of joint spacing, and increased boney spur formation. These signs of facet joint degeneration have been previously measured using destructive biochemical and mechanical analysis. Nondestructive clinical evaluation of the facet joint has also been performed using MRI scoring, which ranks the health of the facet joint using the Fujiwara scale.

Metformin reduces SARS-CoV-2 in a Phase 3 Randomized Placebo Controlled Clinical Trial.

Current antiviral treatment options for SARS-CoV-2 infections are not available globally, cannot be used with many medications, and are limited to virus-specific targets. Biophysical modeling of SARS-CoV-2 replication predicted that protein translation is an especially attractive target for antiviral therapy. Literature review identified metformin, widely known as a treatment for diabetes, as a potential suppressor of protein translation via targeting of the host mTor pathway.

Outpatient treatment of Covid-19 with metformin, ivermectin, and fluvoxamine and the development of Long Covid over 10-month follow-up.

Background: Long Covid is an emerging chronic illness potentially affecting millions, sometimes preventing the ability to work or participate in normal daily activities. COVID-OUT was an investigator-initiated, multi-site, phase 3, randomized, quadruple-blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial (NCT04510194). The design simultaneously assessed three oral medications (metformin, ivermectin, fluvoxamine) using two by three parallel treatment factorial assignment to efficiently share placebo controls and assessed Long Covid outcomes for 10 months to understand whether early outpatient treatment of SARS-CoV-2 with metformin, ivermectin, or fluvoxamine prevents Long Covid.

Conduction Cooling and Plasmonic Heating Dramatically Increase Droplet Vitrification Volumes for Cell Cryopreservation.

Droplet vitrification has emerged as a promising ice-free cryopreservation approach to provide a supply chain for off-the-shelf cell products in cell therapy and regenerative medicine applications. Translation of this approach requires the use of low concentration (i.e.

Clinical Potential of Beat-to-Beat Diastolic Interval Control in Preventing Cardiac Arrhythmias.

Life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death are often preceded by cardiac alternans, a beat-to-beat oscillation in the T-wave morphology or duration. However, given the spatiotemporal and structural complexity of the human heart, designing algorithms to effectively suppress alternans and prevent fatal rhythms is challenging. Recently, an antiarrhythmic constant diastolic interval pacing protocol was proposed and shown to be effective in suppressing alternans in 0-, 1-, and 2-dimensional in silico studies as well as in ex vivo whole heart experiments.

Preparation of Scalable Silica-Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Nanowarming.

Cryopreservation technology allows long-term banking of biological systems. However, a major challenge to cryopreserving organs remains in the rewarming of large volumes (>3 mL), where mechanical stress and ice formation during convective warming cause severe damage. Nanowarming technology presents a promising solution to rewarm organs rapidly and uniformly via inductive heating of magnetic nanoparticles (IONPs) preloaded by perfusion into the organ vasculature.

Twelve-Lead ECG Optimization of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy in Patients With and Without Delayed Enhancement on Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Background Delayed enhancement ( DE ) on magnetic resonance imaging is associated with ventricular arrhythmias, adverse events, and worse left ventricular mechanics. We investigated the impact of DE on cardiac resynchronization therapy ( CRT ) outcomes and the effect of CRT optimization. Methods and Results We studied 130 patients with ejection fraction ( EF ) ≤40% and QRS ≥120 ms, contrast cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, and both pre- and 1-year post- CRT echocardiograms.

Slit-Robo GTPase-Activating Protein 2 as a metastasis suppressor in osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone tumor, with metastatic disease responsible for most treatment failure and patient death. A forward genetic screen utilizing Sleeping Beauty mutagenesis in mice previously identified potential genetic drivers of osteosarcoma metastasis, including Slit-Robo GTPase-Activating Protein 2 (Srgap2). This study evaluates the potential role of SRGAP2 in metastases-associated properties of osteosarcoma cell lines through Srgap2 knockout via the CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease system and conditional overexpression in the murine osteosarcoma cell lines K12 and K7M2.

Assessment of Transport Mechanisms Underlying the Bicoid Morphogen Gradient.

Morphogen gradients dictate the spatial patterning of multicellular organisms and are established via transport mechanisms. One of the best-characterized morphogens, Bicoid, acts as a polarity determinant in the Drosophila embryo through spatial-temporal control of gap gene expression. The prevailing model for establishment of the gradient has been localized anterior translation, subsequent diffusion, and spatially uniform degradation, consistent with the observed exponential anterior-posterior decay.

On the estimation of the number of dipole sources in EEG source localization.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to determine the number of the equivalent dipole sources corresponding to the scalp EEG using the information criterion method based on the instantaneous-state modeling.

Methods: A three-concentric-spheres head model was used to represent the head volume conductor. The Powell algorithm was used to solve the inverse problem of estimating the equivalent dipoles from the scalp EEG.