Patellofemoral joint arthroplasty: patient selection,surgical technique and outcomes

Isolated patellofemoral arthritis is an increasingly recognized entity, and is usually associated with previous patellofemoral dysplasia or instability. Patellofemoral arthroplasty (PFA) has evolved significantly in recent years, both in terms of implant design and importantly in the understanding of appropriate patient selection. This review outlines the indications and investigations for PFA, provides a brief history of the development of contemporary implants, and presents the clinical outcomes for the prostheses most commonly used in the UK. In addition, it provides a detailed surgical technique for implantation of an onlay implant, with tips on how to optimize patellofemoral biomechanics and thus achieve a consistently good outcome.     

Nanotherapeutic approach to treat diabetic foot ulcers using tissue-engineered nanofiber skin substitutes: A review

Background and aimsDiabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disease associated with long-term multisystem complications, among which nonhealing diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are recognized as major cause of morbidity and mortality. Treating DFUs with surgical procedures such as synthetic or biological skin grafts or skin substitutes has several limitations, where none of the currently available skin substitutes is ideal.MethodsOVID/Medline and PubMed databases were searched using the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) or Title/Abstract words (“diabetic foot ulcers”, “skin substitutes”, and “nanofibers”), to identify published research studies on DFUs and nanofibers.ResultsElectrospinning nanotechnology is being used in the biomedical field to produce polymeric nanofibers impregnated with drugs for wound healing, burns and diabetic ulcers. Those nanofibers also enable seeding of cells into them and culturing them in vitro to synthesize tissue-like structures. Knowing the advantages of generating patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and organoids in three-dimension (3D), including skin organoids, it is worth mingling these technologies to develop tissue-engineered biological skin substitutes.ConclusionNanofiber-skin substitutes hold promise for treatment of patients suffering from DFUs and inspire novel strategies that could be applied to other organ systems as well, introducing a new era of “regenerative and personalized medicine”.     

An assessment of the correlation between robust CT-derived ventilation and pulmonary function test in a cohort with no respiratory symptoms

Objective:To evaluate CT-ventilation imaging (CTVI) within a well-characterized, healthy cohort with no respiratory symptoms and examine the correlation between CTVI and concurrent pulmonary function test (PFT).Methods:CT scans and PFTs from 77 Caucasian participants in the NORM dataset (clinicaltrials.gov {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT00848406","term_id":"NCT00848406"}}NCT00848406) were analyzed. CTVI was generated using the robust Integrated Jacobian Formulation (IJF) method. IJF estimated total lung capacity (TLC) was computed from CTVI. Bias-adjusted Pearson’s correlation between PFT and IJF-based TLC was computed.Results:IJF- and PFT-measured TLC showed a good correlation for both males and females [males: 0.657, 95% CI (0.438–0.797); females: 0.667, 95% CI (0.416–0.817)]. When adjusting for age, height, smoking, and abnormal CT scan, correlation moderated [males: 0.432, 95% CI (0.129–0.655); females: 0.540, 95% CI (0.207–0.753)]. Visual inspection of CTVI revealed participants who had functional defects, despite the fact that all participant had normal high-resolution CT scan.Conclusion:In this study, we demonstrate that IJF computed CTVI has good correlation with concurrent PFT in a well-validated patient cohort with no respiratory symptoms.Advances in knowledge:IJF-computed CTVI’s overall numerical robustness and consistency with PFT support its potential as a method for providing spatiotemporal assessment of high and low function areas on volumetric non-contrast CT scan.