Background: Autograft bone is still the gold standard as fusion substrate in anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). In patients underwent combined posterior laminectomy and anterior discectomy surgery, whether the resected structural cervical laminae are suitable for bone graft in ACDF during the surgery remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if the height and area o...

OBJECTIVES The effect of progression of left ventricular hypertrophy on coronary artery dimensions was studied in patients with aortic valve disease. METHODS Cross-sectional area of the left and right coronary arteries was determined by quantitative coronary arteriography in 12 control subjects and in 10 patients with aortic valve disease at baseline and after a follow-up period of 66 months....

The purpose of this study was to evaluate in vitro the shear bond strength of recycled orthodontic brackets. S2C-03Z brackets (Dental Morelli, Brazil) were bonded to the buccal surfaces of 50 extracted human premolars using Concise Orthodontic chemically cured composite resin (3M, USA). The teeth were randomly assigned to 5 groups (n=10), as follows. In group I (control), the bonded brackets re...

BACKGROUND Bronchial mucosal dendritic cells (DCs) initiate and regulate immune responses to inhaled antigens, viruses and bacteria. Currently, little is known of their numbers in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). While reductions in their numbers have been reported recently in smokers with asthma, nothing is known of the effects of cigarette smoking on bronchial DCs i...

Background: Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD) is typically characterized by painless bilateral and symmetrical cervical lymphadenopathy, with associated fever and leukocytosis. The aim of the current study was to summarize the clinical features and imaging characteristics of RDD, in an effort to improve its diagnostic accuracy. Methods The study was analyzed from 32 patients between January 2011 an...

PURPOSE The foveal avascular zone (FAZ) is altered in numerous diseases. We assessed factors (axial length, segmentation method, age, sex) impacting FAZ measurements from optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography images. METHODS We recruited 116 Caucasian subjects without ocular disease, and acquired two 3 × 3 mm AngioVue scans per each right eye (232 total scans). In images of the super...

PURPOSE To assess the repeatability of endothelial cell density (ECD) measurements by the EM-935 endothelial microscope and their agreement with those of the Konan-Noncon Robo SP 6000 (Noncon Robo) specular microscope. METHODS We assessed the agreement between automated and semiautomated methods of analysis of the EM-935 and the Noncon Robo by measuring ECD in 40 eyes of 20 healthy subjects a...

Recent advances in the design of photostimulable phosphor (PSP) plates for computed radiography (CR) systems have made it possible to manufacture plates made of BaFI:Eu phosphor material in the cassette form. The image quality of this plate, six BaF(Br,I):Eu plates, and one BaFBr:Eu plate were evaluated in terms of presampling modulation transfer function (MTF), normalized Wiener spectra (WSN),...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Angiographic assessment of the severity of intermediate lesions in the left main coronary artery (LMCA) is subject to significant limitations. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) can provide accurate measurement, but there is no agreement on the minimum lumen cross-sectional area (MLA) that indicates significant disease. The aim of this study was to determine the long-term...