Digesting the Contents: an Analysis of Online Colorectal Cancer Education Websites.

Online educational resources have an impact on patient understanding, opinion, and behavior. More colorectal cancer patients are being diagnosed and using the internet to search for information. This study aims to provide the most in-depth and comprehensive examination of online colorectal resources to date. An internet search using the terms "colorectal cancer," "colon cancer," and "rectal cancer" were performed, with meta-search engines "Dogpile," "Yippy," and "Google." A total of 741, 759, and 703 websites were returned by the search engines respectively. A list of the "top 100 websites" was compiled by placing the sites in average rank order. The websites were evaluated using a validated structured rating tool. Inter-rater reliability was evaluated using kappa statistics, and the results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Website affiliations were 40% commercial and 35% from non-profit organizations. Most websites disclosed ownership (93%) and had no apparent bias (94%). Authorship disclosure was poor (17%). Most sites were interactive (84%) and organized (70% with at least 4/5 features). Readability was at a senior high school level on average. Content coverage and accuracy were the highest in the areas of etiology (96% coverage) and symptoms (95% coverage) and lowest in areas of treatment (72% coverage) and prognosis (43% coverage).Colorectal cancer online information can be improved in accountability, readability, content accuracy, and completeness. Author disclosure, more accurate and updated citations, and a lower grade level of readability are needed. More complete and accurate information are needed, especially in the areas of treatment and prognosis.

Platelet-Rich Plasma in Patients With Partial-Thickness Rotator Cuff Tears or Tendinopathy Leads to Significantly Improved Short-Term Pain Relief and Function Compared With Corticosteroid Injection: A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial.

PURPOSE: To perform a randomized controlled trial comparing platelet-rich plasma (PRP) with standard corticosteroid (CS) injection in providing pain relief and improved function in patients with rotator cuff tendinopathy and partial-thickness rotator cuff tears (PTRCTs). METHODS: This double-blind randomized controlled trial enrolled patients with ultrasound-proven or magnetic resonance imaging-proven PTRCTs who received either an ultrasound-guided PRP or CS injection. Patients completed patient-reported outcome assessments at baseline and at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 12 months after injection. The primary outcome was improvement in the visual analog scale (VAS) score for pain. Secondary outcomes included changes in American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) and Western Ontario Rotator Cuff Index (WORC) scores. Treatment failure was defined as subsequent injection, consent to undergo surgery, or operative intervention. RESULTS: We followed up 99 patients (47 in the PRP group and 52 in the CS group) until 12 months after injection. There were no differences in baseline patient demographic characteristics including age, sex, or duration of symptoms. Despite randomization, patients in the PRP group had worse baseline VAS (46.0 vs 34.7, P = .01), ASES (53.9 vs 61.8, P = .02), and WORC (42.2 vs 49.5, P = .03) scores. At 3 months after injection, the PRP group had superior improvement in VAS (-13.6 vs 0.4, P = .03), ASES (13.0 vs 2.9, P = .02), and WORC (16.8 vs 5.8, P = .03) scores. There were no differences in patient-reported outcomes at 6 weeks or 12 months. There was no difference in the rate of failure (P = .31) or conversion to surgery (P = .83) between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with PTRCTs or tendinopathy experienced clinical improvement in pain and patient-reported outcome scores after both ultrasound-guided CS and PRP injections. Patients who received PRP obtained superior improvement in pain and function at short-term follow-up (3 months). There was no sustained benefit of PRP over CS at longer-term follow-up (12 months). LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level I, randomized controlled trial.

Infectious Brachial Plexopathy and Septic Arthritis of the Shoulder due to Lemierre's Syndrome: A Case Report and Literature Review.

CASE: We present a 20-year-old female with Lemierre's syndrome and an associated infectious brachial plexopathy and missed septic shoulder arthritis. She subsequently presented with advanced post-infectious glenohumeral joint arthritis. At the final 12-month follow-up, substantial shoulder pain and dysfunction persisted. CONCLUSIONS: When Lemierre's syndrome has been diagnosed, patients with upper extremity symptoms suggestive of metastatic infection require a thorough assessment to rule out musculoskeletal involvement and site-specific intervention to prevent long-term morbidity.

Measuring microtubule growth and gliding in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos.

Microtubule plus-tip tracking is a powerful method to measure microtubule growth dynamics in vivo. Here we outline an approach that exploits live confocal microscopy of a GFP-tagged EB1-like protein to measure microtubule growth behavior and minus-end-directed microtubule motor activity at the cortex of Caenorhabditis elegans embryos. The EB1 velocity assay (EVA) provides a method to reproducibly monitor motor- and non-motor-assisted microtubule movements.

Visualization of dynein-dependent microtubule gliding at the cell cortex: implications for spindle positioning.

Dynein motors move along the microtubule (MT) lattice in a processive "walking" manner. In the one-cell Caenorhabditis elegans embryo, dynein is required for spindle-pulling forces during mitosis. Posteriorly directed spindle-pulling forces are higher than anteriorly directed forces, and this imbalance results in posterior spindle displacement during anaphase and an asymmetric division. To address how dynein could be asymmetrically activated to achieve posterior spindle displacement, we developed an assay to measure dynein's activity on individual MTs at the embryo cortex. Our study reveals that cortical dynein motors maintain a basal level of activity that propels MTs along the cortex, even under experimental conditions that drastically reduce anaphase spindle forces. This suggests that dynein-based MT gliding is not sufficient for anaphase spindle-pulling force. Instead, we find that this form of dynein activity is most prominent during spindle centering in early prophase. We propose a model whereby different dynein-MT interactions are used for specific spindle-positioning tasks in the one-cell embryo.