[Kyphoplasty in osteoporotic spinal fractures]. / Kyphoplastie bei osteoporotischen Wirbelfrakturen.

Kyphoplasty has been the standard procedure for osteoporotic fractures for more than 5 years but the material costs are still very high. The aim of this study was to clarify whether pain reduction could be achieved without increasing the rate of new fractures and also in what areas costs could possibly be reduced. From 15.01.2007 until 15.01.2008, a total of 100 patients with 126 recent osteoporotic spinal fractures were treated by kyphoplasty with an average operation time of 38 min and follow-up times up to 12 months. During this follow-up period 15 lateral and 2 dorsal cement leakages remained asymptomatic and 1 dorsal leakage caused an incomplete paraparesis, which was finally cured completely. All patients were very content and pain measured on the visual analogous scale could be lowered from 8.0 before the operation to 2.7 points after the operation. With material costs of 3,056 Euro, there were additional operation costs of 247 Euro per case. The average effective weight was 2.84. On average 7,810 Euro returns could be achieved, deducting material and operation costs left 4,507 Euro per case. More than 40% of gains were reinvested in operation and material costs. Within 12 months 6 new fractures occurred despite medicinal prophylactic treatment which could also be successfully treated by kyphoplasty. The average visual analogous scale after 12 months was 2.1 points.Kyphoplasty still causes financial deficits due to high material costs, however, patients benefit from a reduction of pain.

Effect of a natural contaminant on foam fractionation of bromelain.

Foam fractionation is a simple, inexpensive method for separating and purifying proteins. Typically, a dilute bromelain solution with a pH ranging from 2.0 to 7.0 foams very well when bubbles are introduced into a foam fractionation column. It was observed, however, that the dilute enzyme solution only foamed between approximately pH 2.0 and 3.0 when the inner wall of the fractionation column was coated with a natural contaminant (okra residue). We studied the separation ratio and the protein mass recovery to explore the effect of a natural antifoaming agent on the foam fractionation of a dilute bromelain solution. The control variables used in this process were the initial bulk solution pH, which ranged from 2.0 to 7.0, and the superficial air velocity, which varied between 1.7 and 6.2 cm/s.

Syntaxin and synaptobrevin function downstream of vesicle docking in Drosophila.

In synaptic transmission, vesicles are proposed to dock at presynaptic active zones by the association of synaptobrevin (v-SNARE) with syntaxin (t-SNARE). We test this hypothesis in Drosophila strains lacking neural synaptobrevin (n-synaptobrevin) or syntaxin. We showed previously that loss of either protein completely blocks synaptic transmission. Here, we attempt to establish the level of this blockade. Ultrastructurally, vesicles are still targeted to the presynaptic membrane and dock normally at specialized release sites. These vesicles are mature and functional since spontaneous vesicle fusion persists in the absence of n-synaptobrevin and since vesicle fusion is triggered by hyperosmotic saline in the absence of syntaxin. We conclude that the SNARE hypothesis cannot fully explain the role of these proteins in synaptic transmission. Instead, both proteins play distinct roles downstream of docking.