ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The subchondral trabecular bone is located deep inside the articular cartilage, with the subcapital region carrying up to 70% of the diurnal loads occurring in the hip joint. This leads to severe regional anatomical variations of subchondral trabecular bone in the femoral head and the purpose of this study was to examine whether osteoarthritis affects these topographic characteristics. METHODS: 60 femoral heads were harvested during hip replacement and studied by osteopenetration at 8 pre-defined angles, at a penetration rate of 1mm/s. Twenty-eight of the donors underwent surgery due to osteoarthritis, whereas the remaining were trauma patients with hip fractures. To correlate these measurements to non-invasive data, all specimens were scanned by micro Computed Tomography (µCT) prior to experimentation. A cross-sectional area, perpendicular to the needle penetration pathway, was analyzed and the deviations compared to the recorded osteopenetration energy. FINDINGS: The experiments revealed significant topographical deviations in the trabeculae. These were more pronounced in the osteoarthritic samples which also required overall higher osteopenetration energy. A notable dependency of the directional bone strength to its cross-sectional characteristics was observed. Although the effect of "gender" on osteopenetration energy was proven to be significant, gender was not considered an independent variable in a regression model correlating osteopenetration energy to 2D trabecular bone density as this did not improve the value of the adjusted R(2). INTERPRETATION: The investigation provided refined insight into femoral head load-bearing capacity of patients suffering from osteoarthritis, as a comparison of osteoarthritic to healthy samples illustrated that subchondral trabecular bone in the femoral head region is subjected to increased remodeling and demineralization, reflected in higher osteopenetration values.
Subject(s)
Femur Head/pathology , Osteoarthritis, Hip/pathology , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip , Bone Density , Cartilage, Articular/diagnostic imaging , Cartilage, Articular/pathology , Female , Femur Head/diagnostic imaging , Femur Head/physiopathology , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Osteoarthritis, Hip/diagnostic imaging , Osteoarthritis, Hip/physiopathology , Osteoarthritis, Hip/surgery , Weight-Bearing , X-Ray MicrotomographyABSTRACT
There has been an impressive, little understood increase in cases of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The lack of any distinctive pathogenetic mechanism has hampered the development of any effective treatments. Increasing evidence indicates oxidative stress, brain inflammation, gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction and allergic symptoms may be present in ASD patients. The flavone luteolin has anti-oxidant, anti-flammatory, anti-allergy and neuroprotective properties. Given these findings, a dietary supplement was developed with a unique mixture of luteolin with the related flavonoids quercetin and rutin in a liposomal formulation of olive kernel oil (OKO), which increases their absorption. Results are presented for children with ASD (n=37, 4-14 years old) who had not obtained any benefit from multiple other regimens and who used this formulation for at least 4 months. GI and allergy symptoms improved in about 75 percent of children, eye contact and attention in 50 percent, social interaction in 25 percent and resumption of speech in about 10 percent. There were no adverse effects. Even though these results represent an uncontrolled open case series, they are encouraging because they suggest good tolerability and potential effectiveness.
