Public Transit Service-Opportunities in Commuter-Belt Municipalities – A Systemic Analysis of Two Districts in the Vienna Region

Public transport in the transition zone from cities to rural areas is increasingly becoming a focus from the financial and public service provision perspective. The (perceived) supply differences of rural and remote areas are on the agenda of policy discourse. Our survey studies the public transport supply of two districts and their municipalities in the region of Vienna, Austria, by using the parameters of service-opportunities, municipal population, acreage of settlement units and potential demand. Annual service-opportunities is a parameter recorded by the public transport authority of the Vienna region for every single station under its zone of influence. These parameters are analyzed to conclude that service-opportunities pose a viable entity for systematic public transport analysis and differences in supply of these two districts are in contrast to expectations. Finally, we address the need for future development of service-opportunities based analyses

Patients with Intolerance Reactions to Total Knee Replacement: Combined Assessment of Allergy Diagnostics, Periprosthetic Histology, and Peri-implant Cytokine Expression Pattern

We performed a combined approach to identify suspected allergy to knee arthroplasty (TKR): patch test (PT), lymphocyte transformation test (LTT), histopathology (overall grading; T- and B-lymphocytes, macrophages, and neutrophils), and semiquantitative Real-time-PCR-based periprosthetic inflammatory mediator analysis (IFN gamma, TNF alpha, IL1-beta, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL17, and TGF beta). We analyzed 25 TKR patients with yet unexplained complications like pain, effusion, and reduced range of motion. They consisted of 20 patients with proven metal sensitization (11 with PT reactions;9 with only LTT reactivity). Control specimens were from 5 complicated TKR patients without metal sensitization, 12 OA patients before arthroplasty, and 8 PT patients without arthroplasty. Lymphocytic infiltrates were seen and fibrotic (Type IV membrane) tissue response was most frequent in the metal sensitive patients, for example, in 81% of the PT positive patients. The latter also had marked periprosthetic IFN gamma expression. 8/9 patients with revision surgery using Ti-coated/oxinium based implants reported symptom relief. Our findings demonstrate that combining allergy diagnostics with histopathology and periprosthetic cytokine assessment could allow us to design better diagnostic strategies

Patients with Intolerance Reactions to Total Knee Replacement: Combined Assessment of Allergy Diagnostics, Periprosthetic Histology, and Peri-implant Cytokine Expression Pattern

We performed a combined approach to identify suspected allergy to knee arthroplasty (TKR): patch test (PT), lymphocyte transformation test (LTT), histopathology (overall grading; T- and B-lymphocytes, macrophages, and neutrophils), and semiquantitative Real-time-PCR-based periprosthetic inflammatory mediator analysis (IFNγ, TNFα, IL1-β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL17, and TGFβ). We analyzed 25 TKR patients with yet unexplained complications like pain, effusion, and reduced range of motion. They consisted of 20 patients with proven metal sensitization (11 with PT reactions; 9 with only LTT reactivity). Control specimens were from 5 complicated TKR patients without metal sensitization, 12 OA patients before arthroplasty, and 8 PT patients without arthroplasty. Lymphocytic infiltrates were seen and fibrotic (Type IV membrane) tissue response was most frequent in the metal sensitive patients, for example, in 81% of the PT positive patients. The latter also had marked periprosthetic IFNγ expression. 8/9 patients with revision surgery using Ti-coated/oxinium based implants reported symptom relief. Our findings demonstrate that combining allergy diagnostics with histopathology and periprosthetic cytokine assessment could allow us to design better diagnostic strategies