Spine
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Case report of a patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and a positional occlusion of the left vertebral artery (VA). ⋯ Doppler ultrasonography and CT angiography allow valuable measurements in the diagnosis of positional VA occlusion. The one-sided destruction of the C1/C2 lateral masses might be a causal factor for VA occlusion in RA. This is the first report of a new pathomechanism underlying positional VA occlusion demonstrated with three-dimensional CT angiography.
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Analysis of Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) and Oswestry Disability Index (Oswestry) responses. ⋯ Because of less error when missing data are present, the most accurate method for expressing RMDQ sum scores collected using Yes/No answers is conversion to a 0 to 100 scale. This conversion method is (a) if all questions are answered or only one question is unanswered, multiply the raw sum score by 100 divided by the total number of questions, and (b) if two or more questions are unanswered, multiply the raw sum score by 100 divided by the number of answered questions.
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Expression of light chain 3 (LC3), a characteristic marker of autophagy, was examined by immunohistochemistry and Western blot using a spinal cord injury (SCI) model in mice. Electron microscopic analysis was also performed to examine the anatomic formation of autophagy and autophagic cell death in the injured spinal cord. ⋯ This study suggested both biochemically and anatomically that autophagy was clearly activated and autophagic cell death was induced in the damaged neural tissue after SCI.
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The thickness of 415 skulls of Thai population was measured at the areas where halo pins are placed. ⋯ The thickness of skull at the halo pin insertion site gradually increases with age. Our study reveals that the thickness of skull reaches a steady peak in third to sixth decades. The thickness of skull at the anterior midline can be predicted by a simple linear regression equation: A = 7.302 + 0.014*age.
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The effect of an EP1 receptor antagonist on pain-related behavior induced by nucleus pulposus (NP) applied to the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) in rats was investigated. ⋯ An EP1 receptor antagonist improves pain-related behavior in the rat model and might be a potential agent to improve pain-related behavior in patients with lumbar disc herniation.