The Prevalence of Financial Conflict of Interest Disclosures by Endovascular Specialists on X (Twitter).

PURPOSE: To evaluate conflicts of interest (COIs) among interventional radiologists and related specialties who mention specific devices or companies on the social media (SoMe) platform X, formerly Twitter. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total, 13,809 posts between October 7, 2021, and December 31, 2021, on X were evaluated. Posts by U.S. interventional radiologists and related specialties who mentioned a specific device or company were identified. A positive COI was defined as receiving a payment from the device manufacturer or company within 36 months prior to posting. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Open Payment database was used to identify financial payments. The prevalence and value of COIs were assessed and compared between posts mentioning a device or company and a paired control group using descriptive statistics and chi-squared tests and independent t tests. RESULTS: Eighty posts containing the mention of 100 specific devices or companies were evaluated. COIs were present in 53% (53/100). When mentioning a specific device or product, 40% interventional radiologists had a COI, compared with 62% neurosurgeons. Physicians who mentioned a specific device or company were 3.7 times more likely to have a positive COI relative to the paired control group (53/100 vs 14/100; P < .001). Of the 31 physicians with a COI, the median physician received $2,270. None of the positive COIs were disclosed. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians posting on SoMe about a specific device or company were more likely to have a financial COI than authors of posts not mentioning a specific device or company. No disclosure of any COI was present in the posts, limiting followers' ability to weigh potential bias.

Trends and patterns of cervical degenerative disc disease: an analysis of magnetic resonance imaging of 1300 symptomatic patients.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the trends and patterns of cervical degenerative disc disease in the cervical spine in different age groups of symptomatic patients. METHODS: Overall, 1300 symptomatic patients who had undergone cervical spine MRI from February 2019 to November 2021 were included. Pfirrmann grading was used to evaluate the IVD degeneration. Patients were divided into five groups based on age: group 1 from 20 to 29 years, group 2 from 30 to 39 years, group 3 from 40 to 49 years, group 4 from 50 to 59 years, and group 5 from 60 years and above. The patterns, severity, and the number of degenerated levels in each age group were analysed. RESULTS: The total number of degenerated IVDs (grades IV and V) increased significantly with age, ranging from 76 (4.9%) in group 1 to 677 (43.4%) in group 5. The most common degenerated levels were C2/3 (25% of the total degenerated levels) in group 1, C5/6 (29.0%) in group 2, C5/6 (33.1%) in group 3, C5/6 (31.3%) in group 4, C5/6 (24.8%), in group 5. The number of degenerated IVDs increased significantly with age (P < 0.001). In patients with two or more degenerated levels, contiguous-level disc degeneration was more common than skip lesions. CONCLUSION: This study evaluated the severity and pattern of cervical disc degeneration at each level in different age groups. The severity and number of degenerated levels increased significantly with increased age. Adjacent-level degeneration is more common than skip lesions in patients with more than one-level degeneration.

Trends and patterns of thoracic intervertebral disc degeneration in symptomatic subjects: a magnetic resonance imaging analysis.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to analyse the trends and patterns of IVD degeneration in different age groups at each level of the thoracic spine. METHODS: This cross-sectional MRI study included 1000 symptomatic patients who had undergone upright thoracic spine MRI. A total of 13,000 thoracic IVDs from C7/T1 to T12/L1 were classified into five grades using Pfirrmann classification. Patients were divided according to their ages into five groups (n = 200/group). The severity and pattern of IVD degeneration were analysed in each age group. A predictive model of the severity and pattern of IVD degeneration in each age group was proposed. RESULTS: The total grade of IVD degeneration and the number of degenerated levels increased with increasing age (P < 0.001). The most common degenerated level was T6/7 (13.3%), while the least common degenerated level was T12/L1 (1.8%). The most common grades were grade I in group 1 (60.5%), grade II in groups 2 (39%) and 3 (37.3%), and grade III in groups 4 (42.5%) and 5 (44.6%). Adjacent-level degenerations were more common than skip-level degenerations. Severe disc degeneration (Pfirrmann grades IV or V) could be predicted to occur more in group 5 (patients with 60 years and above) (margin = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.73-0.84, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The severity of thoracic IVD degeneration and the number of degenerated levels increased with age. Disc degeneration was more accelerated in the mid-thoracic spine. Adjacent-level degeneration was more common than skip-level degenerations.

Another Case of Bell's Palsy Recurrence After Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccination.

Twenty-seven months into the current pandemic and 18 months after vaccinations were made available, there are still relatively limited data on the incidence of recurrent Bell's Palsy after the administration of mRNA-based vaccines. The authors continue to believe that it is through rigorous reporting that the true incidence can be tabulated eventually.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in a patient who recovered from Miller Fisher Syndrome: The role of GQ1b antibody revisited.

Miller Fisher Syndrome (MFS), a variant of Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are two rare neuromuscular diseases that are usually unrelated. While ganglioside antibodies have a common relation with MFS and GBS, they have also been found in association, albeit less commonly, with ALS. A patient experiencing MFS and then ALS in tandem has never been documented. We discuss a case demonstrating these findings, with GQ1b elevated on both occasions. The pathophysiologic role of GQ1b is explored.

Bell's Palsy after second dose of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination in a patient with history of recurrent Bell's palsy.

OBJECTIVE: To report a patient with history of recurrent Bell's Palsy who developed Bell's Palsy 36 â€‹h after the administration of the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. CASE: The patient is a 57-year-old female with past medical history of 3 episodes of Bell's Palsy. She responded to prednisone treatment and returned to her baseline after each occurrence. Less than 36 â€‹h following the second dose of the vaccine, the patient developed a left Bell's Palsy. The facial droop progressed in severity over the next 72 â€‹h. CONCLUSION: Given the expedited production of the vaccine and the novelty associated with its production, there may be information pertaining to side effects and individual response that remain to be discovered. Since both the Moderna and Pfizer Vaccine trials reported Bell's Palsy as medically attended adverse events, the association between vaccine administration and onset of symptomatic Bell's Palsy may warrant further investigation.