Midterm results of mobile-bearing knee replacements

We examined the clinical and radiographic results of 93 patients affected by knee arthritis or osteonecrosis subjected to unilateral cementless mobile-bearing total knee arthroplasty with the LCS prothesis (Depuy/Johnson & Johnson). The mean follow-up was 9.5 years (range, 7–12 years). Clinical evaluation was performed using the Knee Society rating system, while radiographic evaluation was done according to the Knee Society roentgenographic system. At the latest follow-up, the mean knee score was 87 points: the functional score improved from 40 to 90. Radiolucent lines were small and not progressive. The implant survival at 12 years was 88%. Six knees (7%) required revision for implant-related problems. We conclude that the mobile-bearing prosthesis is a successful device even at long-term follow-up.     

Comparative cytotoxicity of 2,3,9-trimethoxypterocarpan in leukemia cell lines (HL-60, Jurkat,Molt-4, and K562) and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells

The purpose of this study was to investigate the antiproliferative activity of 2,3,9-trimethoxypterocarpan, a known pterocarpan with cytotoxic activity against many tumor cell lines, in a panel of four leukemia cell lines (HL-60, Molt-4, Jurkat, and K562) and on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). The pterocarpan showed IC₅₀ ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 μg/ml at leukemic cells after 72 h of incubation, with K562 being the most resistant cell line. This compound seemed to be selective to tumor cell lines, since at a concentration of 10 μg/ml after 72 h, it only reduced 19% of viable peripheral mononuclear cells.     

Evaluating self-generated information: anterior prefrontal contributions to human cognition

The anterior or rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) is frequently recruited during complex cognitive tasks across a wide range of domains, including reasoning, long-term memory retrieval, and working memory. The authors report an event-related functional MRI study, indicating that the RLPFC is specifically involved in the evaluation of internally generated information--or information that cannot be readily perceived from the external environment but has to be inferred or self-generated. The findings are consistent with a hierarchical model of lateral prefrontal organization, with RLPFC contributing only at the highest orders of cognitive transformations. This characterization of RLPFC function may help explain seemingly disparate findings across multiple cognitive domains and could provide a unified account of this region's contribution to human cognition.     

Association of photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) and exercises programs in pain and functional capacity of patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA): a systematic review of randomized trials

Lasers in Medical Science - Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a common degenerative disease in which several treatments and treatment associations have been investigated. This review analyzed the...     

COVID-19 Treatment: Drug Safety Prior to Conception and During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

In December 2019, a new viral respiratory infection known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first diagnosed in the city of Wuhan, China. COVID-19 quickly spread across the world, leading the World Health Organization to declare it a pandemic on March 11, 2020. The disease is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a similar virus to those involved in other epidemics such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Epidemiological studies have shown that COVID-19 frequently affects young adults of reproductive age and that the elderly and patients with chronic disease have high mortality rates. Little is known about the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy and breastfeeding. Most COVID-19 cases present with mild flu-like symptoms and only require treatment with symptomatic relief medications, whereas other cases with COVID-19 require treatment in an intensive care unit. There is currently no specific effective treatment for COVID-19. A large number of drugs are being used to fight infection by SARS-CoV-2. Experience with this therapeutic arsenal has been gained over the years in the treatment of other viral, autoimmune, parasitic, and bacterial diseases. Importantly, the search for an effective treatment for COVID-19 cannot expose pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 to the potential teratogenic risks of these drugs. Therefore, it is necessary to determine and understand the safety of anti-COVID-19 therapies prior to conception and during pregnancy and breastfeeding.Key words: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, antiviral, pregnancy, breastfeeding     

Level of sustained entorhinal activity at study correlates with subsequent cued-recall performance: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study with high acquisition rate

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with high acquisition rate was performed during the intentional memorizing of words to specify which medial temporal lobe structure is important in determining what words are subsequently remembered in a cued-recall test and to characterize the time course of activation in that structure. Functional images of six healthy young subjects were analyzed by two subject- and voxel-wise statistics: First, to identify brain areas transiently engaged in encoding of words, brain activity during memorizing visually presented words and watching a fixation cross was compared by a Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic (KS-test). Second, to identify brain areas whose activity correlates with memory encoding success, a Kendall's correlation was calculated between signal intensity at study and performance in a subsequent cued-recall test. Averaged signal intensities were plotted as a function of time to depict the time course of brain activity detected by both statistical tests. The level of slowly modulated, sustained activity in Brodmann area 28 (entorhinal cortex) did not respond transiently as study words appeared, but did correlate positively with subsequent test performance. More left than right activity in Brodmann area 45 (dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex) and bilateral activity in Brodmann area 44 (premotor cortex) exhibited transient hemodynamic responses that did not show any relation to subsequent memory performance. Thus, the study identified a novel pattern of slowly modulated brain activity in human entorhinal cortex that may represent a declarative memory encoding state whose level predicts whether experiences will be remembered or forgotten.