Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with transverse myelitis and traumatic spinal cord injury: A comparative retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with transverse myelitis (TM) and to compare functional status between those patients and a matched group with traumatic spinal cord injury (T-SCI). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: A tertiary rehabilitation hospital. PARTICIPANTS: The demographic and clinical characteristics of 484 T-SCI patients and 25 TM patients were compared. Functional status was further analyzed by matching the two groups. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: The matched patients were compared in terms of motor and sensory functions, bladder and bowel symptoms, ambulation level, the Rivermead Mobility Index, and SCI-related medical complications. RESULTS: The mean age of the TM patients was 35.6 years and was similar to that of the T-SCI patients. There were significantly more females in the TM group (P = 0.017). Individuals with TM had fewer cervical injuries (P = 0.032) and a higher rate of paraplegia (P = 0.047) and were more often incomplete (P = 0.009) than those with T-SCI. Sensory function was significantly better in the TM group compared to the matched T-SCI group (P = 0.05). Independent ambulation frequency was higher in the TM patients. The SCI-related complications seen in the TM group were as common as those in the T-SCI group. CONCLUSION: The TM and T-SCI groups differed in terms of the demographic and clinical characteristics recorded. Additionally, when matched for these differences, functional status was slightly better in the TM group. However, like T-SCI, TM was a significant cause of disability and SCI-related complications were common.

Mechanical test and friction-mapping on recycled polypropylene beads using atomic force microscopy.

Mechanical tests at sub-micron scales using force microscopy are often used for the characterization of materials. Here we report the mechanical, tribologic, and morphological characterization of recycled polypropylene beads using force spectroscopy and lateral-force microscopy. The compression-elastic moduli calculated using the Hertzian model for polypropylene beads was between 0.448 ± 0.010 and 1.044 ± 0.057 GPa. The grain size analysis revealed a significant correlation between the grain size and measured compression-elastic moduli. Friction-maps of recycled polypropylene beads obtained using lateral-force microscopy were also reported for 25 µm2 scanning areas.