Role of parathyroid hormone therapy in reversing radiation‐induced nonunion and normalization of radiomorphometrics in a murine mandibular model of distraction osteogenesis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/101851/1/hed23216.pd

Stem Cell Therapy Remediates Reconstruction of the Craniofacial Skeleton After Radiation Therapy

This study utilized transplanted bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) as a cellular replacement therapy to remedy radiation-induced injury and restore impaired new bone formation during distraction osteogenesis (DO). BMSC therapy brought about the successful generation of new bone and significantly improved both the rate and quality of a bony union of irradiated, distracted [X-ray radiation therapy (XRT)/DO] murine mandibles to the level of nonirradiated DO animals. The bone mineral density and bone volume fraction were also significantly improved by the BMSC replacement therapy showing no difference when compared to nonirradiated animals. Finally, a biomechanical analysis examining the yield, failure load, and ultimate load also demonstrated a significantly improved structural integrity in BMSC-treated XRT/DO mandibles over XRT/DO alone. These results indicate that administration of BMSCs intraoperatively to a radiated distraction gap can function as an adequate stimulant to rescue the ability for irradiated bone to undergo DO and produce a healed regenerate of a vastly superior quality and strength. We believe that the fundamental information on the optimization of bone regeneration in the irradiated mandible provided by this work has immense potential to be translated from the bench to the bedside to lead to improved therapeutic options for patients suffering from the disastrous sequelae of radiation therapy.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140201/1/scd.2012.0472.pd

Sleep tracking of a commercially available smart ring and smartwatch against medical-grade actigraphy in everyday settings: instrument validation study

Background: Assessment of sleep quality is essential to address poor sleep quality and understand changes. Owing to the advances in the Internet of Things and wearable technologies, sleep monitoring under free-living conditions has become feasible and practicable. Smart rings and smartwatches can be employed to perform mid- or long-term home-based sleep monitoring. However, the validity of such wearables should be investigated in terms of sleep parameters. Sleep validation studies are mostly limited to short-term laboratory tests; there is a need for a study to assess the sleep attributes of wearables in everyday settings, where users engage in their daily routines.Objective: This study aims to evaluate the sleep parameters of the Oura ring along with the Samsung Gear Sport watch in comparison with a medically approved actigraphy device in a midterm everyday setting, where users engage in their daily routines.Methods: We conducted home-based sleep monitoring in which the sleep parameters of 45 healthy individuals (23 women and 22 men) were tracked for 7 days. Total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), and wake after sleep onset (WASO) of the ring and watch were assessed using paired t tests, Bland-Altman plots, and Pearson correlation. The parameters were also investigated considering the gender of the participants as a dependent variable.Results: We found significant correlations between the ring's and actigraphy's TST (r=0.86; PConclusions: In a sample population of healthy adults, the sleep parameters of both the Oura ring and Samsung watch have acceptable mean differences and indicate significant correlations with actigraphy, but the ring outperforms the watch in terms of the nonstaging sleep parameters.</p

A retrospective study of pheochromocytoma

Pheochromocytoma is a rare disease. A retrospective study of the signs and clinical course of this disorder was performed by evaluating medical records. Our fidings indicate that the prevalence of pheochromocytoma was equal in men and women, and most patients (56%) were in their second and third decades of life. In 10% of the cases, the disease was bilateral, and in 13% it was outside the adrenal (totally para-aortic). The tumor was more common on the right side (8%), and 3.5% were familial. Almost all cases had a history of hypertension and hypertensive crises. Attack-like episodes of clinical symptoms and signs and hypertension were observed in 98%, headache in 71% and profuse perspiration in 68% of the cases. An abdominal mass was palapated in 13% of the cases, 26% had overt diabetes, 23% had ECG changes. Malignancy was observed in 4%, with metastases to the liver (n=2) lung (n=1) and spine (n=1). In the latter four cases, the metastic lesion was histologically proven to be pheochromocytoma. In three of the 28 female cases, the first hypertensive crisis occurred during pregnancy causing abortion in one case

A comparison of growth and development of low birth weight and normal newborns at 5 years age

The growth and developmental status of 252 children with low birth weight (&amp;lt;2500 gr) born from 1988 to 1989 as cases were compared with 312 children with normal birth weight (&amp;gt;2500 gr) at the fifth birthday. The results of comparing these two groups of children show that: 1) In relation to weight for age of survivors, with increasing of age, weight gaining is higher in the control group in comparison with the case group (P=0.00). 2) In relation to height for age the study revealed, that this indicator differs in two groups but the difference is not significant. 3) In regard to Gomez classification: The percentages of all grades of malnutrition (mild, moderate, severe) is grater in the case group than controls. 4) By considering the developmental criteria (skipping, drawing triangle from copy, naming 5 colors, repeating sentences of 10 syllables, counting of 10 coins correctly and respectively): The study showed that developmental indicator of the case group differs from controls. The test statistic &amp;quot;t&amp;quot; showed, there is a significant difference between two variables (P=0.005). 5) By using the Riven test for evaluation of IQ, our findings characterized that, the IQ mean of the LBW and NBW are not truely different