Comparison of contemporary periacetabular osteotomy for hip dysplasia with total hip arthroplasty for hip osteoarthritis.

We report patient-reported outcomes and complications associated with contemporary periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) surgery in treating symptomatic acetabular dysplasia and compare these outcomes with total hip arthroplasty (THA) in patients with similar demographic details. Two consecutive cohorts included patients between aged 18 to 40 years who had undergone either PAO (100 hips; 24 male, 76 female) or THA (55 hips; 18 male, 37 female). At a mean follow-up of 5.9 years (2 to 13), there was significant improvement in the modified Harris hip pain (p < 0.001, PAO and p < 0.001, THA), function (p < 0.001, PAO and p = 0.001, THA), and total scores (p < 0.001, PAO and p < 0.001, THA) within each cohort. There were no significant differences in the clinical outcome scores between the groups. Complication rates were low and similar in each cohort (p = 0.68). Similar to THA, contemporary PAO surgery is a clinically effective procedure that improves function and activity levels, provides pain relief and is associated with an acceptable complication rate.

SU-8 polymer enclosed microchannels with interconnect and nanohole arrays as an optical detection device for biospecies.

We present for the first time the integration of nanohole arrays for surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing together with SU-8 polymer microfluidic channels containing special packaging structures for chip-to-chip and world-to-chip interconnect. Primary steps towards an optical biospecies detection device are presented including observing the effect of period on transmission peak location, examining new materials for the enclosed microchannels, and demonstrating nanohole array SPR transmission data through water contained in the microchannels. Additionally, the enclosed microchannels are integrated with interconnect structures that facilitate interfacing with macro-scale test equipment and microfluidic components and systems such as lab-on-a-chip. Results demonstrate the potential of the polymer microchannels with integrated nanohole arrays and interconnect as a packaged optical SPR detection device.

Monitoring enzymatic reactions in nanolitre wells.

We have developed a laboratory-on-a-chip microarray system based on nanolitre-capacity wells etched in silicon. We have devised methods for dispensing reagents as well as samples, for preventing evaporation, for embedding electronics in each well to measure fluid volume per well in real-time, and for monitoring the fluorescence associated with the production or consumption of NADH in enzyme-catalysed reactions. Such reactions can be found in the glycolytic pathway of yeast. We describe the design, construction and testing of our laboratory-on-a-chip. We also describe the use of these chips to measure both fluorescence (such as that evidenced in NADH) as well as bioluminescence (such as evidenced in ATP assays). We show that our detection limit for NADH fluorescence is 5 micro m with a microscope-based system and 100 micro m for an embedded photodiode system. The photodiode system also provides a detection limit of 2.4 micro m for ATP/luciferase bioluminescence.