Hydroxyapatite deposition disease around the hip: outcomes of CT-guided treatment

PURPOSE:Hydroxyapatite deposition disease (HADD) around the hip joint is a self-limiting condition usually treated conservatively. The aim of the present study is to directly compare the outcomes of CT-guided and conservative treatments in cases of refractory hip HADD.METHODS:Two groups of patients with refractory hip HADD were prospectively constructed from a pool of 484 patients referred for greater trochanter pain syndrome, based on the presence of calcifications around the hip and the failure of conservative treatment. Study group included 22 hips, which underwent CT-guided barbotage and steroid injection treatment, whereas control group consisted of 28 hips that were treated conservatively. Evaluation of the outcome of both groups was performed over a one-year follow-up period with the use of a score measuring clinical improvement in terms of pain and functional impairment.RESULTS:Three weeks after the initiation of treatment, study group exhibited significantly higher scores compared with the control group (P 0.1).CONCLUSION:CT-guided treatment provides relief of debilitating symptoms in the acute phase

Spectrum of skeletal disorders during the peripartum period: MRI patterns

Pregnancy is a normal condition in which a combination of biomechanical and hormonal changes may result in a wide spectrum of skeletal disorders. Skeletal overloading due to postural and weight changes, combined with increased ligamentous laxity stemming from the action of relaxing and the risk of pregnancy-related osteoporosis during childbearing, childbirth, and postpartum, have been associated with various pathologies. Owing to the heterogeneity of proposed contributing factors, skeletal lesions in the peripartum period may be related to different pathogenesis depending on the metabolic status of the patient and the degree of biomechanical stress; thus, a fatigue or insufficiency discrimination is not always easy to make. When combined with clinical data, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful tool in clarifying the cause of skeletal pain in the majority of patients or alerting clinicians to proceed to further investigations. Early detection and tailored treatment are important in order to avoid disease progression and long-term restriction of daily activities which may have an adverse impact on the relationship between the mother and the newborn. This pictorial essay provides an overview of the MRI characteristics and pattern of involvement of skeletal lesions presenting during the peripartum period, combined with demographic data and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) measurements

What Do the Fama-French Factors Add to C-CAPM?

This study extends standard C-CAPM by including two additional factors related to firm size (SMB) and book-to-market value ratio (HML) — the Fama–French factors. C-CAPM is least able to price firms with low book-to-market ratios. The explanation of these returns, as well as the returns on the SMB and HML portfolios, is significantly improved by the inclusion of the HML factor. The component of the risk premia explained by consumption varies across size. We suggest that a possible explanation for the role of HML is its association with the investment growth prospects of firms

Explaining co-movements between equity and CDS bid-ask spreads

In this paper I show that the co-movements between bid-ask spreads of equities and credit default swaps vary over time and increase over crisis periods. The co-movements are strongly related to systematic risk factors and to the theoretical debt-to-equity hedge ratio. I document that hedging and asymmetric information, besides higher funding costs and market volatility risk, are driving factors of the commonality and are significantly priced in CDS bid-ask spreads

Creative Destruction and Asset Prices

This paper introduces Schumpeter's idea of creative destruction into asset pricing. The key point of our model is that small and value firms are more likely destroyed during technological revolutions, resulting into higher expected returns for these stocks. A two-factor model including market return and patent activity growth - the proxy for creative destruction risk - accounts for a large portion of the cross-sectional variation of size and book-to-market sorted portfolios and prices HML and SMB. The expected return difference between assets with the highest and lowest exposure to creative destruction risk amounts to 8.6 percent annually