RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Racial disparities within the field of orthopaedics are well-documented in the spinal surgery, knee arthroplasty, and hip arthroplasty literature. Not much is known about racial differences in patients with sports medicine-related hip disabilities. PURPOSE: To investigate whether differences exist between African American and non-Hispanic White (White) patients evaluated for hip disabilities. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. METHODS: We performed a multicenter retrospective cohort study of 905 patients who were evaluated over a 1-year period for hip-related orthopaedic concerns. Patient demographic data, disability characteristics, and hip radiographic findings were obtained from electronic medical records. We also obtained data on whether patients were offered physical therapy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and/or surgery. Comparisons by race and insurance status were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: African Americans comprised a significantly lower proportion of the patients evaluated for hip-related disabilities compared with Whites (6.5% vs 93.5%; P < .001). A significantly smaller proportion of African Americans with hip disabilities was recommended for surgery than White patients (35.6% vs 54.6%; P = .007). Cam deformities were more common in White vs African American patients (39.7% vs 23.7%; P = .021), as were labral tears (54.1% vs 35.6%; P = .009). Logistic regression demonstrated that neither race nor insurance status were significant determinants in surgery recommendations. Conversely, race was a determinant of whether an MRI was performed, as White patients were 2.74 times more likely to have this procedure. There were no differences with respect to obtaining an MRI between private and Medicaid insurance. CONCLUSION: Compared with White patients, there were differences in both the proportion of African Americans evaluated for hip-related disabilities and the proportion receiving a surgery recommendation. African Americans with sports medicine-related hip issues were also less likely to obtain an MRI. With regard to observed pathology, African American patients were less likely to have cam deformities and labral tears than White patients.
RESUMO
Objectives: Early identification of patients who will experience delayed-onset pain relief after GKRS for trigeminal neuralgia (TN) will allow optimal patient management, and avoidance of unnecessary procedures. A non-invasive tool to identify late responders to GKRS is currently unavailable. We sought to evaluate MRI based diffusivity metrics obtained at the 3-month post-GKRS time point as predictors of treatment response. Methods: Pre-procedural and 3-month post-procedural 3T MRI examinations were obtained in 43 patients with TN. Diffusion tensor metrics including axial diffusivity (AD), radial diffusivity (RD), and fractional anisotropy (FA) were extracted from the bilateral trigeminal nerve intra-pontine fibers, cisternal radiosurgical targets (or corresponding contralateral nerve segments), and non-targeted cisternal nerve segments. A favorable treatment response was defined as pain intensity on the Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) scale of I-II at last follow-up. Pain relief and treatment response at last follow-up were examined for correlation with the 3-month post-GKRS diffusivity metrics. Results: At a median clinical follow-up of 5 months (range 0.5 to 24.5 months), all patients who did not experience pain relief at last follow-up had significantly reduced cisternal AD values (p=0.04) at the 3-month brain Diffusion Tensor image. In patients with classic TN, reduced mean cisternal AD (p=0.032), RD (p=0.026), and FA (p=0.042) values at the 3-month DTI follow-up were associated with BNI >2 at last follow-up. In addition, decreased mean cisternal AD (p=0.036), RD (p=0.029), and FA (p=0.037) were noted in patients with classic TN that failed to achieve a decrease of 2 points on the BNI scale at last follow-up. Conclusion: Alterations of diffusivity metrics on the treated trigeminal nerve 3 months after GKRS for classic TN significantly correlated with no response to GKRS at last follow-up. Further studies to clarify the value of DTI as a non-invasive tool to predict response to treatment in patients with TN managed with GKRS are warranted.
RESUMO
Diabetic patients suffer from gastrointestinal disorders associated with dysmotility, enteric neuropathy and dysbiosis of gut microbiota; however, gender differences are not fully known. Previous studies have shown that a high-fat diet (HFD) causes type two diabetes (T2D) in male mice after 4-8 weeks but only does so in female mice after 16 weeks. This study seeks to determine whether sex influences the development of intestinal dysmotility, enteric neuropathy and dysbiosis in mice fed HFD. We fed 8-week-old C57BL6 male and female mice a standard chow diet (SCD) or a 72% kcal HFD for 8 weeks. We analyzed the associations between sex and intestinal dysmotility, neuropathy and dysbiosis using motility assays, immunohistochemistry and next-generation sequencing. HFD ingestion caused obesity, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance in male but not female mice. However, HFD ingestion slowed intestinal propulsive motility in both male and female mice. This was associated with decreased inhibitory neuromuscular transmission, loss of myenteric inhibitory motor neurons and axonal swelling and loss of cytoskeletal filaments. HFD induced dysbiosis and changed the abundance of specific bacteria, especially Allobaculum, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, which correlated with dysmotility and neuropathy. Female mice had higher immunoreactivity and numbers of myenteric inhibitory motor neurons, matching larger amplitudes of inhibitory junction potentials. This study suggests that sex influences the development of HFD-induced metabolic syndrome but dysmotility, neuropathy and dysbiosis occur independent of sex and prior to T2D conditions. Gastrointestinal dysmotility, neuropathy and dysbiosis might play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of T2D in humans irrespective of sex.