The demographics of equestrian-related injuries in the United States: injury patterns, orthopedic specific injuries, and avenues for injury prevention.

Background: It was the purpose of this study to review equestrian-related injuries using a large nation wide database and analyze predictors of significant injury.

Methods: The National Electronic Surveillance System database was queried for equestrian injuries from 2002 to 2004. The presence of a fracture, dislocation, traumatic brain injury, musculoskeletal injury, orthopedic injury, and spinal injury, as well as injury mechanism, geographical location, and emergency room disposition were noted.

Antibodies and immunohistochemical evaluation for the diagnosis of hematological malignancies: an overview.

The immunohistochemical evaluation of hematopoietic tissues has expanded our knowledge of both the function and pathological processes in a wide range of lymph nodal, extranodal tissues, and bone marrow. It is impossible to cover in detail the full range of immunohistochemical markers, which are available to study hematopoietic cells and their malignant counterparts. This chapter attempts to provide an overview of the antibodies, which are commonly used in studying the hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues and to diagnose hematological disorders.

The demographics of playground equipment injuries in children.

Background/purpose: There have been many different studies of injuries owing to playground equipment but none that have looked in detail using large nationwide databases. It was the purpose of this study to investigate injuries owing to playground equipment using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database and further understand their demographics.

Methods: Detailed NEISS injury data from 2002 through 2004 for slides, monkey bars, and swings were analyzed.

Correlation of radiographic changes with disease severity and demographic variables in children with stable slipped capital femoral epiphysis.

The duration of symptoms in children with stable slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE) varies widely, and radiographic metaphyseal changes develop at some point. It was the purpose of this study to investigate if metaphyseal changes correlate with symptom duration and other demographic parameters. A retrospective review of 97 children with idiopathic stable SCFE between 1998 and 2005 was performed.

Risk for early-onset schizophrenia assessed via gray-matter distributions.

Automated image analysis algorithms were used to measure regional gray matter volumes in children with early-onset schizophrenia. Logistic regression analysis of gray matter volumes within Brodman areas was used to test the ability to predict whether a subject was normal or schizophrenic. The ROC area-under-the-curve was 0.

Significance of a fragmented QRS complex versus a Q wave in patients with coronary artery disease.

Background: Q waves on a 12-lead ECG are markers of a prior myocardial infarction (MI). However, they may regress or even disappear over time, and there is no specific ECG sign of a non-Q-wave MI. Fragmented QRS complexes (fQRSs), which include various RSR' patterns, without a typical bundle-branch block are markers of altered ventricular depolarization owing to a prior myocardial scar.

From the simple to the sublime: incorporating surgical models into your surgical curriculum.

Financial and time constraints have limited graduating residents' operative experience, making the use of models a necessary adjunct to a complete surgical curriculum. Models are useful tools to teaching surgical skills outside the operating room. They can be very realistic and complex, or they can be simple and economical.

Allograft and alloplastic bone substitutes: a review of science and technology for the craniomaxillofacial surgeon.

Bone healing is a complex and multifactorial process. As such, there are numerous steps in the process to which intervention can be directed. This has given rise to many bone graft technologies that have been used to regenerate bone, creating, perhaps, a bewildering array of options.

Chronic granulomatous disease and other disorders of phagocyte function.

The analysis of specific gene defects in disorders of phagocyte function has shed light on important aspects of the innate immune response. Each disorder has distinctive features in the clinical presentation and characteristic microbial pathogens. Chronic granulomatous disease has been extensively studied both in patient series and in mouse models.

Modern modified 'ultra' Goeckerman therapy: a PASI assessment of a very effective therapy for psoriasis resistant to both prebiologic and biologic therapies.

Background: Compared with the original Goeckerman therapy devised by Dr Goeckerman in the 1930s, modern modified Goeckerman therapy in the second millennium shows significantly enhanced efficacy by improvements in technology (e.g. narrowband UVB) and the possibility of adding other relatively safe therapeutic options for more resistant cases to enhance efficacy without compromising the basic safety profile.

Reduced genomic cytosine methylation and defective cellular differentiation in embryonic stem cells lacking CpG binding protein.

Cytosine methylation at CpG dinucleotides is a critical epigenetic modification of mammalian genomes. CpG binding protein (CGBP) exhibits a unique DNA-binding specificity for unmethylated CpG motifs and is essential for early murine development. Embryonic stem cell lines deficient for CGBP were generated to further examine CGBP function.

Mode of action of butoxyethanol-induced mouse liver hemangiosarcomas and hepatocellular carcinomas.

Chronic exposure to 2-butoxyethanol resulted in an increase in liver hemangiosarcomas and hepatic carcinomas in male mouse liver. No increase in liver neoplasia was observed in similarly exposed male and female rats or female mice. We have proposed that the production of liver neoplasia in the male mouse is the result of oxidative damage secondary to the hemolytic deposition of iron in the liver.

Biophysical evidence that connexin-36 forms functional gap junction channels between pancreatic mouse beta-cells.

Connexin-36 (Cx36) is the only gap junction protein that has been unambiguously identified in rodent pancreatic beta-cells. However, properties of gap junction channel unitary currents between beta-cells remain unrevealed. To address whether Cx36 forms functional channels in beta-cells, we characterized biophysical properties of macro- and microscopic junctional currents recorded from dual whole cell voltage clamp isolated pairs of dispersed mouse beta-cells.

Real world performance of approximate string comparators for use in patient matching.

Medical record linkage is becoming increasingly important as clinical data is distributed across independent sources. To improve linkage accuracy we studied different name comparison methods that establish agreement or disagreement between corresponding names. In addition to exact raw name matching and exact phonetic name matching, we tested three approximate string comparators.

Evaluating the response of patients undergoing both allergy skin testing and in vitro allergy testing with the ImmunoCAP Technology System.

Purpose: To evaluate the response of patients who underwent both skin and in vitro allergy testing, both of which are accepted methods.

Data Sources: Retrospective review of the case notes of 100 patients evaluated by both testing methods for allergic disease.

Conclusions: A total of 62 patients (62%) tested positive to at least one of the tested allergens via the in vitro method.

Kawasaki-like syndromes and other vasculitic syndromes in HIV-infected patients.

Excluding drug-related hypersensitivity reactions, vasculitic syndromes are not common in HIV-positive patients. Review of the existing literature suggests that HIV positive patients may be predisposed to polyarteritis nodosa, microscopic polyarteritis, Kawasaki-like syndromes, acute occlusion syndromes, primary angiitis of the central nervous system and erythema elevatum diutinum. With the exception of erythema elevatum diutinum, these vasculitic syndromes have significant morbidities and mortality if they are not treated.

Microglial apolipoprotein E and astroglial apolipoprotein J expression in vitro: opposite effects of lipopolysaccharide.

Apolipoprotein E (apoE) and apoJ are lipid carriers produced in the brain primarily by glial cells. A variety of glial-activating stimuli induce a parallel upregulation of both apolipoproteins expression in vivo and in vitro. To further characterize the cell type and mechanisms by which apoE and apoJ expression are upregulated in activated glia, mixed glial cultures from neonatal rat cortex were treated with the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS).

Interobserver variability of gait analysis in patients with cerebral palsy.

In this study 11 ambulatory patients (mean 10.8 years) with spastic cerebral palsy were each evaluated with instrumented gait analysis at four different centers. After review of the data, each medical director chose from a list of treatment options.

Effects of serotonin-3 receptor antagonists on the intracranial self-administration of ethanol within the ventral tegmental area of Wistar rats.

Rationale: Previous work from our laboratory indicated that Wistar rats will self-administer ethanol (EtOH) directly into the posterior ventral tegmental area (VTA) and that 5-HT(3) antagonists will inhibit EtOH-stimulated somatodendritic release of dopamine within the VTA.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to use the intracranial self-administration procedure to determine the involvement of 5-HT(3)receptors in mediating the reinforcing effects of EtOH within the VTA, and to increase our understanding of central nervous system mechanisms involved in the rewarding effects of EtOH.

Methods: Adult female Wistar rats were stereotaxically implanted with guide cannulae aimed at the posterior VTA.

Hodgkin's disease presenting as cholestatic hepatitis with prominent ductal injury.

In advanced stages of Hodgkin's disease, liver involvement is common. However, Hodgkin's disease mimicking cholestatic hepatitis at presentation is rare. We describe a patient with Hodgkin's disease who was initially considered to have acute cholestatic hepatitis.