PURPOSE To investigate (1) effects of endplate removal and bone mineral density (BMD) on biomechanical properties of lumbar vertebrae (2) whether the distributions of mechanical strength and stiffness of endplate are affected by BMD. METHODS A total of thirty-one lumbar spines (L1-L5) collected from fresh cadavers were used in this study. Bone density was measured using lateral DEXA scans and...

Endplate morphology is understood to play an important role in the mechanical behavior of vertebral bone as well as degenerative processes in spinal tissues; however, the utility of clinical imaging modalities in assessment of the vertebral endplate has been limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of two clinical imaging modalities (digital tomosynthesis, DTS; high reso...

OBJECTIVE To investigate sex hormone deficiency related osteoporosis and efficacy of different therapies. METHODS Orchiectomized and ovariectomized rat models are used to investigate sex hormone deficiency related osteoporosis and efficacy of different therapies. A rat vertebral body can be longitudinally divided into central portion, which contain more trabecular bone, and para-endplate port...

Significant variations exist in the footprint size of cervical vertebral endplates. In anterior cervical spine surgery, an implant that maximizes coverage of the endplate and contacts the apophyses may reduce subsidence and decrease risk of endplate fracture. The ability to accurately predict a patient's vertebral endplate size may be helpful for surgeons to preoperatively choose the optimal im...

A robust infrastructure for solving time-dependent diffusion using the finite element package FEtk has been developed to simulate synaptic transmission in a neuromuscular junction with realistic postsynaptic folds. Simplified rectilinear synapse models serve as benchmarks in initial numerical studies of how variations in geometry and kinetics relate to endplate currents associated with fast-twi...

Rocuronium and vecuronium, two non-depolarizing neuromuscular blockers, have been widely used in surgery procedures. However, their electrophysiological properties need to be more widely explored. We examined the effects of rocuronium and vecuronium on initial rundown of endplate potential amplitudes in the non-uniform stretched muscle preparation of the rat isolated phrenic nerve diaphragm. Mo...

The discovery of the genetic basis for many of the human congenital myasthenic syndromes (Engel et al. 1999; Beeson & Newsom-Davis, 2000) has added to the inherent interest in investigation of the relationship between structure and function in the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) of the muscle endplate. The slow channel congenital myasthenic syndromes result from single amino acid ‘gain-...

BACKGROUND To evaluate the correlation between vertebral endplate change and the level of lumbar disc degeneration via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 345 patients who were recruited from our hospital from May 2012 to May 2016 were evaluated for the presence of intervertebral disc degeneration or herniation. The degree of degeneration was assessed according to ...

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective study. PURPOSE To compare intraoperative endplate injury cases and no injury cases in consecutive series and to identify predisposing factors for intraoperative endplate injury. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE Unintended endplate violation and subsequent cage subsidence is an intraoperative complication of extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF). It is still unknown whethe...