Low rate of return to pre-injury sport level in athletes after cartilage surgery: a 10-year follow-up study.

PURPOSE: Although articular surface is frequently damaged in athletes, results in terms of return to sport and level of activity after cartilage surgery remain rather unpredictable and poorly documented. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical outcome in terms of rate and level of return to sport in a group of competitive athletes who underwent matrix-assisted autologous chondrocyte transplantation (MACT), as well as the impact on their athletic career. METHODS: Thirty-one male patients (mean age 22.6 ± 6.3 years) p racticing sport at competitive level, affected by focal chondral/osteochondral lesions of the distal femur, were enrolled and treated with arthroscopic hyaluronan-based MACT. Patients were evaluated prospectively at 1-year intervals with the IKDC subjective, Tegner, and EuroQol VAS scores during their pre-operative visit and subsequent follow-ups for up to 10 years. Return to sport in terms of level, time and maintenance of the activity level was documented, together with surgical or clinical failures. RESULTS: A marked improvement in all scores was found: IKDC increased from 40.3 ± 13.4 to 81.7 ± 14.4 (p < 0.0005) at 12 months; a further improvement was observed at 2 years (89.5 ± 11.3; p = 0.008), then results were stable for up to 10 years (87.3 ± 13.6). The analysis of return to sport documented that 64.5% of patients were able to return at a competitive level, and 58.1% performed at the same pre-injury level, with activity rates decreasing over time. The rate of patients returning to competitive level was 84% in those without previous surgery (vs. 33% who had undergone previous surgery), 87% for those with traumatic lesions (vs. 33% and 50% for degenerative and OCD lesions, respectively), and 92.3% in younger patients (age < 20 years). Among these factors, multivariate analysis demonstrated that previous surgery was the single most influencing factor for returning to the same sport level (p = 0.010). CONCLUSIONS: These long-term results showed that chondrocyte-based regenerative approach has some limitations in terms of sport-related outcomes. The level of high functional knee restoration needed for such high-demanding activity level can be challenging to achieve, especially in patients with a more compromised joint homeostasis. Return to sport rate varies significantly according to specific patient and lesion characteristics and best results are obtained in young patients with traumatic lesions without previous surgery, which should be considered when treating athletes affected by cartilage lesions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV.

Performance evaluation of the automated nucleated red blood cell count of five commercial hematological analyzers.

INTRODUCTION: Recent automated hematology analyzers (HAs) can identify and report nucleated red blood cells (NRBC) count as a separate population out of white blood cells (WBC). The aim of this study was to investigate the analytical performances of NRBC enumeration on five top of the range HAs. METHODS: We evaluated the within-run and between-day precision, limit of blank (LoB), limit of detection (LoD), and limit of quantitation (LoQ) of XE-2100 and XN-module (Sysmex), ADVIA 2120i (Siemens), BC-6800 (Mindray), and UniCel DxH 800 (Beckman Coulter). Automated NRBC counts were also compared with optical microscopy (OM). RESULTS: The limits of detection for NRBC of the BC-6800, XN-module, XE-2100, UniCel DxH 800, and ADVIA 2120i are 0.035×109 /L, 0.019×109 /L, 0.067×109 /L, 0.038×109 /L, and 0.167×109 /L, respectively. Our data indicated excellent performance in terms of precision. The agreement with OM was excellent for BC-6800, XN-module, and XE-2100 (Bias 0.023, 0.019, and 0.033×109 /L, respectively). ADVIA 2120i displayed a significant constant error and UniCel DxH 800 both proportional and small constant error. CONCLUSION: Regards to NRBC counting, the performances shown by BC-6800, XN-module, and XE-2100 are excellent also a low count, ADVIA 2120i and UniCel DxH 800 need to be improved.

Osteochondral scaffold reconstruction for complex knee lesions: a comparative evaluation.

BACKGROUND: The primary aim of the present study is to evaluate the results obtained in challenging knee lesions with the implant of an osteochondral scaffold and concomitant treatment of all comorbidities. The secondary aim is to compare the results obtained with those found when a chondral scaffold was applied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients affected by complex lesions of the knee articular surface were included. "Complex cases" were defined according to the following criteria: previous clinical history of intra-articular fracture, lesion located at the tibial plateau, concurrent knee axial realignment procedure, concurrent meniscal scaffold or allograft implantation, and multiple articular surface lesions treated. Thirty-three patients were treated with the implantation of an osteochondral scaffold. The results of a homogeneous group of 23 patients previously treated and prospectively evaluated after implantation of a chondral scaffold were analyzed and compared. RESULTS: IKDC subjective score improved significantly from pre-operative (40.4±14.1) to 12months' follow-up (69.6±17.0; p<0.0005) with a further improvement at the final evaluation at 24months (75.5±15.0; p=0.038). The same positive trend was confirmed by the VAS and Tegner scores. At final follow-up the group treated with the osteochondral scaffold presented a better subjective IKDC score with respect to the group treated with the chondral scaffold (p=0.034). CONCLUSIONS: A regenerative procedure to address the entire osteochondral unit, together with the treatment of all comorbidities, might offer good results also in complex cases otherwise doomed to non-biological resurfacing. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE III: Comparative study.

Cutaneous venom of Bombina variegata pachypus (Amphibia, Anura): effects on the growth of the human HL 60 cell line.

The effects of Bombina variegata cutaneous venom (Bvv) on eukaryotic cell growth has been assessed employing the human leukaemic cell line HL 60, by liquid and agar semisolid cultures and 51Cr release assay. HL 60 cells growth is impaired by Bvv in a dose-dependent fashion in both culture systems. The arrest of proliferation requires a contact time lower than 3 min and it is not reversed by washing and culturing the cells in a Bvv-free medium. Similarly, an extremely short exposure time is needed to determine maximum 51Cr release. Neither the agar medium nor the fetal calf serum interact with Bvv effects, which, according to the above findings, must be regarded as cytolytic in nature. In both liquid and the agar-semisolid culture Bvv cytolytic activity half life is about 8 hr. The cytolytic properties of Bvv are thought to be part of the chemical defence system of amphibian skin.