Utility of Thermal Imaging in Predicting Superficial Infections in Transfemoral Osseointegrated Implants.

Background: Superficial infection is a common minor complication of transcutaneous implants that can be challenging to predict or diagnose. Although it remains unclear whether superficial infections progress to deep infections (which may require implant removal), predicting and treating any infection in these patients is important. Given that flap thinning during stage II surgery requires compromising vascularity for stability of the skin penetration aperture, we hypothesized that early skin temperature changes predict long-term superficial infection risk. Methods: We obtained standardized thermal imaging and recorded surface temperatures of the aperture and overlying flaps 2 weeks postoperatively for the first 34 patients (46 limbs) treated with the Osseointegrated Prosthesis for the Rehabilitation of Amputees transfemoral implant system. We used two-sided t tests to compare temperatures surrounding the aperture and adjacent soft tissues in patients with and without subsequent infection. Results: During median follow-up of 3 years, 14 limbs (30.4%) developed 23 superficial infections. At patients' initial 2-week visit, mean skin temperature surrounding the aperture was 36.3ºC in limbs that later developed superficial infections and 36.7ºC in uninfected limbs (P = 0.35). In four patients with bilateral implants who later developed superficial infection in one limb, average temperature was 1.5ºC colder in the infected limb (P = 0.12). Conclusions: Superficial infections remain a frequent complication of transfemoral osseointegration surgery. We did not find differences in early heat signatures between limbs subsequently complicated and those not complicated by superficial infection. Further research should explore more objective measures to predict, diagnose, and prevent infections after osseointegration surgery.

Technical Trick: Cryoneurolysis for Subacute Pain Mitigation in Patients With Limb Loss.

SUMMARY: Pain after amputation is often managed by target muscle reinnervation (TMR) with the added benefit that TMR also provides improved myoelectric terminal device control. However, as TMR takes several months for the recipient muscles to reliably reinnervate, this technique does not address pain within the subacute postoperative period during which pain chronification, sensitization, and opioid dependence and misuse may occur. Cryoneurolysis, described herein, uses focused, extreme temperatures to essentially "freeze" the nerve, blocking nociception, and improving pain in treated nerves potentially reducing the chances of pain chronification, sensitization, and substance dependence or abuse.

Life Expectancy After Treatment of Metastatic Bone Disease: An International Trend Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: The decision to treat metastatic bone disease (MBD) surgically depends in part on patient life expectancy. We are unaware of an international analysis of how life expectancy among these patients has changed over time. Therefore, we asked (1) how has the life expectancy for patients treated for MBD changed over time, and (2) which, if any, of the common primary cancer types are associated with longer survival after treatment of MBD? METHODS: We reviewed data collected from 2000 to 2022 in an international MBD database, as well as data used for survival model validation. We included 3,353 adults who underwent surgery and/or radiation. No patients were excluded. Patients were grouped by treatment date into period 1 (2000 to 2009), period 2 (2010 to 2019), and period 3 (2020 to 2022). Cumulative survival was portrayed using Kaplan-Meier curves; log-rank tests were used to determine significance at P < 0.05. Subgroup analyses by primary cancer diagnosis were performed. RESULTS: Median survival in period 2 was longer than in period 1 ( P < 0.001). Median survival (at which point 50% of patients survived) had not been reached for period 3. Median survival was longer in period 2 for all cancer types ( P < 0.001) except thyroid. Only lung cancer reached median survival in period 3, which was longer compared with periods 1 and 2 ( P < 0.001). Slow-growth, moderate-growth, and rapid-growth tumors all demonstrated longer median survival from period 1 to period 2; only rapid-growth tumors reached median survival for period 3, which was longer compared with periods 1 and 2 ( P < 0.001). DISCUSSION: Median duration of survival after treatment of MBD has increased, which was a consistent finding in nearly all cancer types. Longer survival is likely attributable to improvements in both medical and surgical treatments. As life expectancy for patients with MBD increases, surgical methods should be selected with this in mind. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: VI.

Is the Lifetime Malignancy Risk in United States Military Personnel Sustaining Combat-related Trauma Increased Because of Radiation Exposure From Diagnostic Imaging?

BACKGROUND: Patients with complex polytrauma in the military and civilian settings are often exposed to substantial diagnostic medical radiation because of serial imaging studies for injury diagnosis and subsequent management. This cumulative radiation exposure may increase the risk of subsequent malignancy. This is particularly true for combat-injured servicemembers who receive care at a variety of facilities worldwide. Currently, there is no coordinated effort to track the amount of radiation exposure each servicemember receives, nor a surveillance program to follow such patients in the long term. It is important to assess whether military servicemembers are exposed to excessive diagnostic radiation to mitigate or prevent such occurrences and monitor for carcinogenesis, when necessary. The cumulative amount of radiation exposure for combat-wounded and noncombat-wounded servicemembers has not been described, and it remains unknown whether diagnostic radiation exposure meets thresholds for an increased risk of carcinogenesis. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: We performed this study to (1) quantify the amount of exposure for combat-wounded servicemembers based on medical imaging in the first year after injury and compare those exposures with noncombat-related trauma, and (2) determine whether the cumulative dose of radiation correlates to the Injury Severity Score (ISS) across the combat-wounded and noncombat-wounded population combined. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of servicemembers who sustained combat or noncombat trauma and were treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from 2005 to 2018. We evaluated patients using the Department of Defense Trauma Registry. After consolidating redundant records, the dataset included 3812 unique servicemember encounters. Three percent (104 of 3812) were excluded because of missing radiation exposure data in the electronic medical record. The final cohort included 3708 servicemembers who had combat or noncombat injury trauma, with a mean age at the time of injury of 26 ± 6 years and a mean ISS of 18 ± 12. The most common combat trauma mechanisms of injury were blast (in 65% [2415 of 3708 patients]), followed by high-velocity gunshot wounds (in 22% [815 of 3708 patients]). We calculated the cumulative diagnostic radiation dose exposure at 1 year post-traumatic injury in patients with combat-related trauma and those with noncombat trauma. We did this by multiplying the number of imaging studies by the standardized effective radiation dose for each imaging study type. We then performed analysis of variance for four data subsets (battle combat trauma, nonbattle civilian trauma, high ISS, and high radiation exposure [> 50 mSv]) independently. To evaluate whether the total number of imaging studies, radiation exposure, and ISS values differed between battle-wounded and nonbattle-wounded patients, we performed a pairwise t-test. RESULTS: The mean radiation exposure for combat-related injuries was 35 ± 26 mSv while the mean radiation exposure for noncombat-related injuries was 22 ± 33 mSv in the first year after injury. In the first year after trauma, 44% of patients (1626 of 3708) were exposed to high levels of radiation that were greater than 20 mSv, and 23% (840 of 3708) were exposed to very high levels of radiation that were greater than 50 mSv. Servicemembers with combat trauma-related injuries had eight more imaging studies than those who sustained noncombat injuries. Servicemembers with combat trauma injuries (35 ± 26 mSv) were exposed to more radiation (approximately 4 mSv) than patients treated for noncombat injuries (22 ± 33 mSv) (p = 0.01). We found that servicemembers with combat injuries had a higher ISS than servicemembers with noncombat trauma (p < 0.001). We found a positive correlation between radiation exposure and ISS for servicemembers. The positive relationship between radiation exposure and ISS held for combat trauma (r 2 = 0.24; p < 0.001), noncombat trauma (r 2 = 0.20; p < 0.001), servicemembers with a high ISS (r 2 = 0.10; p < 0.001), and servicemembers exposed to high doses of radiation (r 2 = 0.09; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: These data should be used during clinical decision-making and patient counseling at military treatment facilities and might provide guidance to the Defense Health Agency. These recommendations will help determine whether the benefits of further imaging outweigh the risk of carcinogenesis. If not, we need to develop interdisciplinary clinical practice guidelines to reduce or minimize radiation exposure. It is important for treating physicians to seriously weigh the risk and benefits of every imaging study ordered because each test does not come without a cumulative risk. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, therapeutic study.

The recombination landscapes of spiny lizards (genus Sceloporus).

Despite playing a critical role in evolutionary processes and outcomes, relatively little is known about rates of recombination in the vast majority of species, including squamate reptiles-the second largest order of extant vertebrates, many species of which serve as important model organisms in evolutionary and ecological studies. This paucity of data has resulted in limited resolution on questions related to the causes and consequences of rate variation between species and populations, the determinants of within-genome rate variation, as well as the general tempo of recombination rate evolution on this branch of the tree of life. In order to address these questions, it is thus necessary to begin broadening our phylogenetic sampling. We here provide the first fine-scale recombination maps for two species of spiny lizards, Sceloporus jarrovii and Sceloporus megalepidurus, which diverged at least 12 Mya. As might be expected from similarities in karyotype, population-scaled recombination landscapes are largely conserved on the broad-scale. At the same time, considerable variation exists at the fine-scale, highlighting the importance of incorporating species-specific recombination maps in future population genomic studies.

Information out of the blue: phenotypic correlates of abdominal color patches in Sceloporus lizards.

Colorful ornaments are important visual signals for animal communication that can provide critical information about the quality of the signaler. In this study, we focused on different color characteristics of the abdominal patches of males of six lizard species from the genus Sceloporus. We addressed three main objectives. First, we examined if size, brightness, saturation, and conspicuousness of these ornaments are indicative of body size, condition, immune function, or levels of testosterone and corticosterone. Second, we evaluated if the distinct components of these abdominal patches (blue or green patches and black stripes) transmit similar information about the signaler, which would support the redundant signal hypothesis, or if these components are related to different phenotypic traits, which would support the multiple message hypothesis. Third, we compared the phenotypic correlates of these ornaments among our six species to understand the degree of conservatism in the signaling patterns or to find species-specific signals. Using data collected from males in natural conditions and a multi-model inference framework, we found that in most species the area of the patches and the brightness of the blue component are positively related to body size. Thus, these color characteristics are presumably indicative of the physical strength and competitive ability of males and these shared signals were likely inherited from a common ancestor. In half of the species, males in good body condition also exhibit relatively larger blue and black areas, suggesting that the expression of these ornaments is condition-dependent. Abdominal patches also provide information about immunocompetence of the males as indicated by different correlations between certain color characteristics and ectoparasite load, counts of heterophils, and the heterophil:lymphocyte ratio. Our findings reveal that area and brightness of the abdominal patches signal the size and body condition of males, whereas blue saturation and conspicuousness with respect to the surrounding substrate are indicative of immune condition, thus supporting the multiple message hypothesis. However, some of these correlations were not shared by all species and, hence, point to intriguing species-specific signals.

Occurrence data uncover patterns of allopatric divergence and interspecies interactions in the evolutionary history of Sceloporus lizards.

As shown from several long-term and time-intensive studies, closely related, sympatric species can impose strong selection on one another, leading to dramatic examples of phenotypic evolution. Here, we use occurrence data to identify clusters of sympatric Sceloporus lizard species and to test whether Sceloporus species tend to coexist with other species that differ in body size, as we would expect when there is competition between sympatric congeners. We found that Sceloporus species can be grouped into 16 unique bioregions. Bioregions that are located at higher latitudes tend to be larger and have fewer species, following Rapoport's rule and the latitudinal diversity gradient. Species richness was positively correlated with the number of biomes and elevation heterogeneity of each bioregion. Additionally, most bioregions show signs of phylogenetic underdispersion, meaning closely related species tend to occur in close geographic proximity. Finally, we found that although Sceloporus species that are similar in body size tend to cluster geographically, small-bodied Sceloporus species are more often in sympatry with larger-bodied Sceloporus species than expected by chance alone, whereas large-bodied species cluster with each other geographically and phylogenetically. These results suggest that community composition in extant Sceloporus species is the result of allopatric evolution, as closely related species move into different biomes, and interspecies interactions, with sympatry between species of different body sizes. Our phyloinformatic approach offers unique and detailed insights into how a clade composed of ecologically and morphologically disparate species are distributed over large geographic space and evolutionary time.

Losing the trait without losing the signal: Evolutionary shifts in communicative colour signalling.

Colour signalling traits are often lost over evolutionary time, perhaps because they increase vulnerability to visual predators or lose relevance in terms of sexual selection. Here, we used spectrometric and phylogenetic comparative analyses to ask whether four independent losses of a sexually selected blue patch are spectrally similar, and whether these losses equate to a decrease in conspicuousness or to loss of a signal. We found that patches were lost in two distinct ways: either increasing reflectance primarily at very long or at very short wavelengths, and that species with additional colour elements (UV, green and pink) may be evolutionary intermediates. In addition, we found that patch spectral profiles of all species were closely aligned with visual receptors in the receiver's retina. We found that loss of the blue patch makes males less conspicuous in terms of chromatic conspicuousness, but more conspicuous in terms of achromatic contrast, and that sexual dimorphism often persists regardless of patch loss. Dorsal surfaces were considerably more cryptic than were ventral surfaces, and species in which male bellies were the most similar in conspicuousness to their dorsal surfaces were also the most sexually dimorphic. These results emphasize the consistent importance of sexual selection and its flexible impact on different signal components through evolutionary time.

Molecular phylogenetics and dating of the problematic New Guinea microhylid frogs (Amphibia: Anura) reveals elevated speciation rates and need for taxonomic reclassification.

Asterophryinae is a large monophyletic subfamily of Anurans containing over 300 species distributed across one of the world's most geologically active areas - New Guinea and its satellite islands, Australia and the Philippines. The tremendous ecological and morphological diversity of this clade, with apparent specializations for burrowing, terrestrial, semi-aquatic, and arboreal lifestyle, suggests an evolutionary process of adaptive radiation. Despite this spectacular diversity, this and many other questions of evolutionary processes have received little formal study because until now the phylogeny of this spececies-rich clade has remained uncertain. Here we reconstruct a phylogeny for Asterophryinae with greatly increased taxon and genetic sampling relative to prior studies. We use Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference methods to produce the most robust and comprehensive phylogeny to date containing 155 species using 3 nuclear and 2 mitochondrial loci. We also perform a time calibration analysis to estimate the age of the clade. We find support for the monophyly of Asterophryinae as well as need for taxonomic reclassification of several genera. Furthermore, we find increased rates of speciation across the clade supporting the hypothesis of rapid radiation. Lastly, we found that adding taxa to the analysis produced more robust phylogenetic results over adding loci.

Clinical implications of hepatobiliary scintigraphy and ultrasound in the diagnosis of acute cholecystitis.

BACKGROUND: We assess the performance of ultrasound (US) and hepatobiliary scintigraphy (HIDA) as confirmatory studies in acute cholecystitis (AC) and demonstrate our current imaging protocol's impact on outcomes. STUDY DESIGN: Between January 2013 to July 2014, 117 patients were admitted through the emergency room with a preliminary diagnosis of AC. Overall, 106/117 (91%) of the patients received US preadmission and 34/117 (29%) received a HIDA post admission. Primary end points included: 1) diagnostic test reliability for AC, and 2) outcome and quality measures (time to surgery, LOS, costs, etc.). RESULTS: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed in 96/117 (82%) and open cholecystectomy in 21/117 (18%) of the patients. Overall, histopathologic features consistent with AC was present in 46/117 (39%). AC alone was present in 23/117 (20%), and AC superimposed on chronic cholecystitis was present in 23/117 (20%). For AC, US had a sensitivity and specificity of 26% and 80%, respectively. HIDA scan had a sensitivity and specificity of 87% and 79%, respectively. Time to surgery (TTS) was 4 vs 2.3 days in patients who received HIDA vs US alone (p = 0.001), and length of stay (LOS) was 6.7 vs 4.3 days, respectively (p = 0.001). Age >50 years, glucose >140 (mg/dl), and WBC count >10 (×109 /L) were statistically significant independent variables associated with AC. CONCLUSION: HIDA scan is superior to US as a diagnostic study in the setting of AC. Our current protocol of delayed HIDA (post-admission) was associated with increased TTS, LOS, and overall costs. Early confirmation with HIDA in high risk patients may hasten treatment allocation and improve outcomes in the setting of AC.