Regulating Tissue Growth Factors for Healing With Etherified Carboxymethylcellulose Matrix.

Etherified Carboxymethylcellulose Matrix (eCMC) is a revolutionary application of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) in wound care, known for its potential in hemostasis and tissue regeneration. This study aims to investigate the mechanism of eCMC in tissue healing by establishing a rat burn model and administering eCMC as a treatment. The objective is to analyze cytokines and inflammatory mediators using a Cytokine Array and histochemical staining to understand the effects of eCMC on tissue regeneration.

Initial human experience with the GORE EXCLUDER Conformable AAA Endoprosthesis.

Endovascular repair has become the standard of care for treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms. The endografts and delivery systems for endovascular aneurysm repair have undergone multiple generations of technologic advancements. However, a significant remaining challenge for a satisfactory long-term outcome is to improve the performance of these devices in nonideal proximal sealing zones.

Increases in Serial Pretreatment F-FDG PET-CT Metrics Predict Survival in Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated With Stereotactic Ablative Radiation Therapy.

Purpose: Quantitative changes in positron emission tomography with computed tomography imaging metrics over serial scans may be predictive biomarkers. We evaluated the relationship of pretreatment metabolic tumor growth rate (MTGR) and standardized uptake value velocity (SUVV) with disease recurrence or death in patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer treated with stereotactic ablative radiation therapy (SABR).

Methods And Materials: Under institutional review board approval, we retrospectively identified patients who underwent positron emission tomography with computed tomography at diagnosis and staging and simulation for SABR.

Risk factors and outcomes for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli bacteremia.

Background: The incidence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms is increasing along with mortality. Identifying risk factors for the development of MDR Gram-negative bacilli (GNB) bacteremia could greatly impact patient care and management.

Methods: Data from the electronic health record of patients with GNB over 13-month period were collected at a single university medical center.

Prospective, multicenter study of endovascular repair of aortoiliac and iliac aneurysms using the Gore Iliac Branch Endoprosthesis.

Objective: The GORE EXCLUDER Iliac Branch Endoprosthesis (IBE; W. L. Gore and Associates, Flagstaff, Ariz) is an iliac branch stent graft system designed to preserve internal iliac artery perfusion during endovascular repair of aortoiliac aneurysms (AIAs) and common iliac artery (CIA) aneurysms (CIAAs).

Treatment of diabetic foot ulcers with dehydrated amniotic membrane allograft: a prospective case series.

Objective: A diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is one of the many potential complications associated with diabetes. If not effectively and rapidly treated, DFUs can result in lower extremity amputations. This prospective case series aimed to assess the effectiveness of a dehydrated amniotic-derived tissue allograft (DAMA), with regards to time to wound closure and total number of applications.

Characteristics of Illinois School Districts That Employ School Nurses.

Research indicates that school nursing services are cost-effective, but the National Association of School Nurses estimates that 25% of schools do not have a school nurse (SN). The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of Illinois school districts that employed SNs. This was a secondary data analysis of Illinois School Report Card system data as well as data obtained from district websites regarding SNs.

Quantitative evaluation of image segmentation incorporating medical consideration functions.

Purpose: A quantitative and objective metric, the medical similarity index (MSI), has been developed for evaluating the accuracy of a medical image segmentation relative to a reference segmentation. The MSI uses the medical consideration function (MCF) as its basis.

Methods: Currently, no indices provide quantitative evaluations of segmentation accuracy with medical considerations.

Bath Salt-Induced Psychosis: Nursing Assessment, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Outcomes.

Purpose: To review what is known about the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of patients with bath salt-induced psychosis.

Design And Methods: Comprehensive review and synthesis of research, case reports, and state-level data.

Findings: Of the 42 case reports found, only 18 confirmed the presence of bath salts through laboratory testing.

Quantitative Analysis Tools and Digital Phantoms for Deformable Image Registration Quality Assurance.

This article proposes quantitative analysis tools and digital phantoms to quantify intrinsic errors of deformable image registration (DIR) systems and establish quality assurance (QA) procedures for clinical use of DIR systems utilizing local and global error analysis methods with clinically realistic digital image phantoms. Landmark-based image registration verifications are suitable only for images with significant feature points. To address this shortfall, we adapted a deformation vector field (DVF) comparison approach with new analysis techniques to quantify the results.

Moyamoya disease: a case of vanishing cerebral vessels.

Purpose: To provide an overview of moyamoya disease (MMD) including pathophysiology, epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.

Data Sources: Selected clinical and epidemiological studies, review articles, and diagnostic guidelines for MMD.

Conclusions: MMD is a rare cerebrovascular disease characterized by progressive stenosis of the distal internal carotid arteries and their major branches.

Composite Radiation Dose Representation Using Fuzzy Set Theory.

Composite plans created from different image sets are generated through Deformable Image Registration (DIR) and present a challenge in accurately presenting uncertainties, which vary with anatomy. Our effort focuses on the application of Fuzzy Set theory to provide an accurate dose representation of such a composite treatment plan. The accuracy of the DIR is generally verified through geometrical visual checks, including the confirmation of the corresponding anatomies with edge features, such as bone or organ boundaries.

Performance evaluation of the immature granulocyte parameter on the Sysmex XE-2100 automated hematology analyzer.

Recently, St. Anthony's Medical Center Laboratory (SAMC) in St. Louis, Missouri, installed a new automated hematology analyzer, the Sysmex XE-2100.

Neonatal herpes simplex virus infections.

Neonatal herpes simplex virus infections can result in serious morbidity and mortality. Many of the infections result from asymptomatic cervical shedding of virus after a primary episode of genital HSV in the third trimester. Antibodies to HSV-2 have been detected in approximately 20 percent of pregnant women, but only 5 percent report a history of symptomatic infection.

Imaging pitfalls of interbody spinal implants.

Study Design: A variety of interbody implants were imaged by computed tomography and plain radiography within cadaveric spines to evaluate their basic imaging characteristics.

Objectives: Sources of interpretation error by both computed tomography and plain radiography of interbody implants were investigated.

Summary Of Background Data: Lucencies have been reported around bone dowel implants in the postoperative period, which have been shown to resolve.

A controlled prospective outcome study of implantable electrical stimulation with spinal instrumentation in a high-risk spinal fusion population.

Study Design: A series of 65 instrumented patients without stimulation were compared with a later series of 65 patients with instrumentation and implantable electrical stimulation. The groups were evaluated for risk factors, age, diagnostic groups, levels fused, and radiographic and clinical success.

Objectives: To test the efficacy of electrical stimulation in instrumented high-risk lumbar fusions.

The Pap smear, automated rescreening, and negligent nondisclosure.

A new element in the Papanicolaou smear liability crisis is the recent US Food and Drug Administration approval of 2 automated rescreening devices. Their manufacturers have undertaken aggressive advertising in medical journals and in women's magazines, generating controversy about whether this positions such devices as the new standard of care and whether failure to offer such rescreening might lead to liability alleging to tort of negligent nondisclosure, with contributing opinions from pathologists' and manufacturers' counsels. Cases are cited in prenatal diagnostics and blood banking that established liability for failing to disclose diagnostic modalities used by at most only a minority of practitioners and, therefore, have not yet achieved standard-of-care status.

Caring: a political platform.

It must be remembered that a vision exists and there are means to accomplish this vision. We have identified dialogue, collaboration, building of relationships, unity, activism, and research as the key ingredients that need to be fostered. The challenge is here.

Beta-blocker therapy in the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial. CAST Investigators.

The Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST) showed antiarrhythmic drug suppression of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic ventricular arrhythmias in survivors of myocardial infarction to be harmful. This study retrospectively searched the CAST results for evidence of mortality and morbidity reduction in patients receiving optional beta-blocker therapy. All enrolled (n = 2,611) and suppressed main study (n = 1,735) CAST patients with an ejection fraction of < or = 40% were examined using univariate analysis, Kaplan-Meier curves, and a Cox proportional-hazards multivariate analysis with respect to optional beta-blocker therapy prescribed at baseline.

Confirmation of low concentrations of urinary benzodiazepines, including alprazolam and triazolam, by GC/MS: an extractive alkylation procedure.

Urine samples containing diazolo- and triazolobenzodiazepines and metabolites were hydrolyzed with beta-glucuronidase and extracted with methylene chloride. The extracts were treated with methyl iodide, methylene chloride, and tetrahexylammonium hydrogen sulfate in basic solution to form the methyl derivatives of the drugs and metabolites. GC/MS analysis resulted in the following test characteristics: day-to-day precision at 360 ng/mL (120 ng/mL for the triazolobenzodiazepine metabolites) was 2.

Marijuana testing in urine: use of a hexadeuterated internal standard for extended linearity, and ion trap vs mass selective detector gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer systems.

The use of a hexadeuterated internal standard for the assay of the marijuana carboxy metabolite in urine resulted in two significant improvements. First, the linearity of the procedure was increased considerably because of the minimal chromatographic peak overlap of the internal standard and carboxy metabolite derivatives. Second, again because of minimal peak overlap, the same extract could be analyzed with similar results by both the ion trap detector and mass selective detector gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer systems.