The Professional Solution to the College Bubble

see articl

Rotary powered device for bone marrow aspiration and biopsy yields excellent specimens quickly and efficiently

Recently, a new FDA-cleared battery powered bone marrow biopsy system was developed to allow operators access to the bone marrow space quickly and efficiently. A pre-clinical evaluation of the device (OnControl, Vidacare Corporation, San Antonio, TX, USA) on anesthetized pigs was conducted, in addition to a clinical evaluation in hematology clinic patients requiring a bone marrow biopsy. Twenty-six samples were collected from the swine model. No cellular artifact or thermal damage was reported in any of the samples obtained. For the clinical evaluation of the device, 16 patients were recruited. Mean time from needle contact with skin to needle removal was 38.5 +/− 13.94 seconds. No complications were reported. In this study, the manual and powered samples were equivalent in specimen quality. In the patients evaluated, the device was safe, easy to use and the mean procedural time was significantly faster than previously reported with a manual technique

Patterning and axon guidance of cranial motor neurons

The cranial motor nerves control muscles involved in eye, head and neck movements, feeding, speech and facial expression. The generic and specific properties of cranial motor neurons depend on a matrix of rostrocaudal and dorsoventral patterning information. Repertoires of transcription factors, including Hox genes, confer generic and specific properties on motor neurons, and endow subpopulations at various axial levels with the ability to navigate to their targets. Cranial motor axon projections are guided by diffusible cues and aided by guideposts, such as nerve exit points, glial cells and muscle primordia. The recent identification of genes that are mutated in human cranial dysinnervation disorders is now shedding light on the functional consequences of perturbations of cranial motor neuron development