Thermal changes during healing of distal radius fractures-Preliminary findings.

INTRODUCTION: The bone healing process is very complex. In simple terms, bone healing comprises three basic steps, the inflammation phase, the repair phase and the remodelling phase. The increase in blood flow around the fracture during the healing process increases the temperature of the surrounding tissue. Infrared thermography is a method of measuring body temperature that can detect temperature changes during bone healing. Studies on the application of thermography in traumatology are scarce, and there are no studies of thermal changes during normal bone healing. The authors have tried to determine the dynamics of thermal changes during bone healing. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The Flir ThermaCam B2 (FLIR Systems, Inc., Oregon, USA) was used for all measurements. Thermographic recordings were made one, three, five, 11 and 23 weeks after fracture. The contralateral, healthy, forearm was used for comparison. RESULTS: A total of 25 patients of mean age 65.9±10.4 years (range 50-80 years) with fracture of the distal radius were examined in this study. The mean temperature difference between healthy and fractured distal forearm one week after fracture was 1.20±0.48°C, three weeks after fracture was 1.42±0.54°C, five weeks after fracture was 1.04±0.53°C, 11 weeks after fracture was 0.50±0.30°C, and 23 weeks after fracture was 0.22±0.25°C. CONCLUSION: Preliminary findings during this research showed significant temperature changes during healing of distal radius fractures. Infrared thermography is a simple and reliable method in clinical practice that could be used as a good follow-up method in traumatology, but further investigations on more patients are needed.

Analysis of Ikaros family splicing variants in human hematopoietic lineages.

Transcription factors from the Ikaros family are involved in lymphocyte differentiation and have a critical role at specific check points of the haemopoietic pathway. However, how developmentally regulated changes are reflected in gene expression programs of lymphocyte differentiation is not well understood. It has been suggested that disregulation of transcription factors from the Ikaros family is associated with the development of different human leukemias. In this work we analyzed the state of Ikaros family members in different leukemic cells with the aim to explore the transcriptional control of human hematopoietic lineages and shed some new light on our understanding of transcription factor significance in human leukemias. By means of RT-PCR and specific primers we investigated the expression of Ikaros, Aiolos and Helios transcription factors and their splicing variants in seven leukemia cell lines derived from different types of leukemia (ALL, CML, AML) and lymphoma (histiocytic lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma and anaplastic large cell lymphoma). In all of the cell lines examined Ikaros was present in dominant Ik1 to Ik4 isoforms and small Ik6 isoform was absent. Aiolos was expressed in the majority of the cell lines, of both, B and T origin, in the form of the full length Aio1. Helios was also present only in two long isoforms Hel1 and Hel2, and was absent in one third of the lines. Similar distribution of positive and negative expression of Aiolos and Helios found in various types of leukemias could implicate common pathways of their regulation.