OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to perform a comparative evaluation of septic and aseptic interface membranes, assessing histological features, inflammatory infiltrate, and expression of inflammatory cytokines. METHODS Septic and aseptic interface membranes from 102 patients were examined by histology, histochemistry, and immunohistochemistry (tissue arrays). The cell subpopulation...

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective study. PURPOSE To analyze the incidence and prevalence of clinical adjacent segment pathology (CASP) following anterior decompression and fusion with cage and plate augmentation for degenerative cervical diseases. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE No long-term data on the use of cage and plate augmentation have been reported. METHODS The study population consisted of 231 p...

IT IS generally agreed that simple myopia and degenerative myopia are separate conditions, the former being a normal chance variant in the biological series which includes emmetropia and hypermetropia (Duke-Elder, 1949) and the latter a pathological condition. Degenerative myopia in its advanced stage consists of an association of defects: a highly myopic refraction, chorio-retinal degeneration...

Background and Aim: Previous studies have reported the important effect of age, sex, heredity, and occupational status on intervertebral degenerative dick diseases, which are among the most important causes of low back pain. However, their results are not always so conclusive. This study was performed to investigate the demographic characteristics and family history of lumbar problems in patien...

OBJECTIVE Previous investigations suggest little association between clinical findings and radiographic degenerative findings. However, the association between degenerative changes and neck function has not been investigated. DESIGN A cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS Data were collected from 179 female office workers aged 25-53 years with chronic neck pain who were referred for institutional...

Intervertebral disk degeneration has been considered an irreversible process characterized by a decrease in cell viability, attenuation of proteoglycan and type II collagen synthesis, and dehydration of nucleus pulposus. Stem cell therapy specifically addresses the degenerative process and offers a potentially effective treatment modality. Current preclinical studies show that mesenchymal stem ...

OBJECTIVE As a main cellular component within the disc, nucleus pulposus (NP) cells play important roles in disc physiology. However, little is known on the biologic hallmarks of human NP cells. Therefore, the present study aimed to address the features of human NP cells. METHODS Human NP samples were collected from normal cadavers, patients with scoliosis and disc degeneration as normal, dis...

We report a series of experiments in which we compare the residual word comprehension skills of patients with cortical degenerative conditions and those with an "access' dysphasia. Using word-picture matching tasks it was shown that (i) the presentation rate (the response-stimulus interval) affected the word comprehension performance of the patients with an access dysphasia but not of the patie...

OBJECTIVE To determine the relationship between whole body vibration (WBV) induced helicopter flights and degenerative changes of the cervical and lumbar spine. METHODS We examined 186 helicopter pilots who were exposed to WBV and 94 military clerical workers at a military hospital. Questionnaires and interviews were completed for 164 of the 186 pilots (response rate, 88.2%) and 88 of the 94 ...

In the context of the limitations of structural imaging, brain perfusion and metabolism using SPECT and PET have provided relevant information for the study of cognitive decline. The introduction of the radiotracers for cerebral amyloid imaging has changed the diagnostic strategy regarding Alzheimer's disease, which is currently considered to be a "continuum." According to this new paradigm, th...