Anatomic and morphometric examination of auditory ossicles in sheep.

It is important to know the morphometry of the auditory ossicles for middle ear surgical applications. The present study aims to investigate the morphometric measurements of sheep auditory ossicles and the relationship between these ossicles. In this study, 100 malleus, incus and stapes of 50 Akkaraman sheep were examined using at trinocular stereo microscope and a total of 19 morphometric measurements were taken. The mean values of the morphometric measurements were obtained, and correlation analysis was performed between each part of each auditory ossicle. Similarities were found between the measurements of the lengths of the malleus, manubrium mallei and incus, and the width of the base of the stapes with morphometric measurements in human auditory ossicles. A significant positive correlation was found between the length of the malleus with the length of the manubrium mallei, between the length of the incus with the lengths of the long crus and corpus incudis, between the length of the stapes with the lengths of the rostral crus, caudal crus, caput stapedis, and the length and width of the intercrural foramen. Due to the anatomic similarities between sheep and human auditory ossicles, it was concluded that the auditory ossicles of sheep are suitable for use in the training of human ear surgery applications.

Serum pro-matrix metalloproteinase-3 as an indicator of disease activity and severity in rheumatoid arthritis: comparison with traditional markers.

Matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) production increases in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and has been proposed as a marker of disease activity and joint damage. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to examine the usefulness of serum proMMP-3 as an indicator of disease activity and severity in comparison with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Serum proMMP-3 was measured by a quantitative ELISA in 85 RA patients and 70 healthy subjects. Clinical and laboratory measures of disease activity and severity were obtained. Radiological joint damage was assessed by the method of Larsen. Serum proMMP-3 was significantly higher in RA patients than that in the healthy subjects. The active RA patients had significantly higher serum proMMP-3 than the inactive patients. Serum proMMP-3 was significantly correlated with some parameters of disease activity including swollen joints count, proximal interphalangeal joint score, morning stiffness, and Health Assessment Questionnaire; however, ESR and serum CRP were better correlated with all indicators of the disease activity than proMMP-3. The analysis of receiver operating characteristic supported that ESR and CRP had higher performance for reflection of activity compared to proMMP-3. There were no significant associations among Larsen score and proMMP-3, ESR, and CRP. Our results suggest that the cross-sectional measurement of serum proMMP-3 could not give additional information about RA disease activity compared to ESR and CRP, and could not give any information about joint damage.