Risk Factors for Cement Loosening after Vertebroplasty for Osteoporotic Vertebral Fracture with Intravertebral Cleft: A Retrospective Analysis

Toshio Nakamae,Kiyotaka Yamada,Yasuyuki Tsuchida,Orso Lorenzo Osti,Nobuo Adachi,Yoshinori Fujimoto 대한척추외과학회 2018 Asian Spine Journal Vol.12 No.5

Study Design: Retrospective case-control study. Purpose: To evaluate the primary outcomes and radiographic results of percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) in patients with singlelevel osteoporotic vertebral fracture (OVF) with intravertebral cleft (IVC) to identify the risk factors for cement loosening after PVP. Overview of Literature: PVP is a widely accepted method for managing painful OVF; however, cement loosening occasionally occurs with poor outcomes. Methods: This retrospective study involved 195 patients treated with PVP for single-level OVF with IVC. Six months thereafter, the primary outcomes were evaluated using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for back pain and the modified Oswestry Disability Index. Computed tomography was conducted to detect cement loosening. Possible risk factors, such as age, sex, wedging angle, intravertebral instability, Parkinson’s disease, spinous process fracture, ankylosing spinal hyperostosis, split vertebrae, and adjacent intervertebral vacuum, were assessed. Results: Forty-nine patients (25%) experienced cement loosening 6 months after PVP. The mean VAS scores were significantly higher in patients with cement loosening than in those without (50 vs. 26 mm, respectively; p <0.01). Cement loosening was closely associated with intravertebral instability (odds ratio [OR], 1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04–1.40; p =0.015), Parkinson’s disease (OR, 54.31; 95% CI, 4.47–659.53; p =0.002), spinous process fracture (OR, 7.11; 95% CI, 1.65–30.60; p =0.009), and split vertebrae (OR, 11.59; 95% CI, 1.64–82.02; p =0.014). Conclusions: Patients with cement loosening experienced worse back pain than those without cement loosening. The important risk factors that influenced cement loosening after PVP were high intravertebral instability, Parkinson’s disease, spinous process fracture, and split vertebrae.

Pseudo-Real-Time Control of a USB I/O Device under Windows 7

Yuto Watanabe,Akiyoshi Yamada,Masuhiro Nitta,Kiyotaka Kato 제어로봇시스템학회 2010 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2010 No.10

Windows-based PCs (Personal Computers) provide a powerful development environment for controller synthesis because it is easy to evaluate the control effect via installed multifunction I/O devices. These I/O devices are expensive due to handling a real-time processing while non-real-time I/O devices are constructed by inexpensive general-purpose ICs (Integrated Circuits.) The aim of this paper is to assemble an inexpensive I/O device with USB interface and to realize a software-based real-time processing. Since Windows does not allow application programs to access such devices, device drivers are required certainly. Device driver should be coded by fulfilling the device drivers’ specification but it is so costly for beginners. The present paper relaxes the development cost by employing the KMDF (Kernel-Mode Driver Framework.) Then the authors develop an application program to command the I/O device periodically. In order to measure the elapsed time precisely, the paper utilizes the RDTSC (Read Time Stamp Counter) instruction. The authors tackle the stabilization problem of the rotational inverted pendulum to evaluate the usefulness of the developed system.

Quantifying Bone Marrow Edema Adjacent to the Lumbar Vertebral Endplate on Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Cross-Sectional Study of Patients with Degenerative Lumbar Disease

Nakamae Toshio,Kamei Naosuke,Fujimoto Yoshinori,Yamada Kiyotaka,Tamura Takayuki,Tsuchikawa Yuji,Morisako Taiki,Harada Takahiro,Maruyama Toshiaki,Adachi Nobuo 대한척추외과학회 2022 Asian Spine Journal Vol.16 No.2

Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Purpose: We aimed to quantitatively assess bone marrow edema (BME) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for patients with degenerative lumbar diseases. Overview of Literature: BME adjacent to a sclerotic endplate of the lumbar spine, detected using T2-weighted fat-saturated MRI, is closely associated with low back pain in patients with degenerative lumbar diseases. However, currently, there no quantitative evaluation methods for BME adjacent to the vertebral endplate. Methods: Patients with degenerative lumbar diseases, whose MRIs detected BME, were enrolled. On a T2-weighted fat-saturated MRI, BME appeared as a high-intensity region adjacent to the vertebral endplate. We calculated the contrast ratios (CRs) of BME and normal bone marrow using the signal intensities of BME, normal bone marrow, and the spinal cord. On computed tomography, we calculated Hounsfield unit (HU) values in the same area as BME, the sclerotic endplate, and normal bone marrow to assess bone density. Results: There were 16 men and 14 women, with an average age of 73.5 years. The mean CRs of BME and normal bone marrow were −0.015±0.056 and −0.407±0.023, respectively. BME’s CR was significantly higher than that of normal bone marrow (p<0.01). The HU values in the same area as BME, the sclerotic endplate, and normal bone marrow were 251.9±24.6, 828.3±35.6, and 98.1±9.3, respectively; these values were significantly different from each other (p<0.01). Conclusions: The CR on MRI is a useful quantitative assessment tool for BME in patients with degenerative lumbar diseases.

Endothelial progenitor cells promote astrogliosis following spinal cord injury through Jagged1-dependent Notch signaling.

Kamei, Naosuke,Kwon, Sang-Mo,Ishikawa, Masakazu,Ii, Masaaki,Nakanishi, Kazuyoshi,Yamada, Kiyotaka,Hozumi, Katsuto,Kawamoto, Atsuhiko,Ochi, Mitsuo,Asahara, Takayuki M.A. Liebert 2012 JOURNAL OF NEUROTRAUMA - Vol.29 No.9

<P>Interactions between endothelial and neural stem cells are believed to play a critical role in the kinetics of neural stem cells in the central nervous system. Here we demonstrate that endothelial progenitor cells promote the repair of injured spinal cord through the induction of Notch-dependent astrogliosis and vascular regulation. The transplantation of Jagged1(+/+) endothelial progenitor cells, but not Jagged1(-/-) endothelial progenitor cells, increased the number of reactive astrocytes during the acute phase, and improved functional recovery following spinal cord injury. Expression of the Notch effector Hes5 was upregulated in the injured spinal cord after Jagged1(+/+) endothelial progenitor cell transplantation. Furthermore, we found that the Notch ligand Delta-like-1 was highly expressed in Jagged1(-/-) endothelial progenitor cells. Transplantation of Delta-like-1, as well as Jagged1-overexpressing 3T3 cells, revealed that only Jagged1-overexpressing 3T3 stromal cells enhanced astrogliosis following spinal cord injury. In addition, Jagged1(+/+) endothelial progenitor cells exhibited not only dramatic pro-angiogenic effects, but also morphologically abnormal vessel stabilization, compared with Jagged1(-/-)endothelial progenitor cells in injured spinal cord. Thus, transplanted endothelial progenitor cells promote astrogliosis, vascular regulation, and spinal cord regeneration through activation of Jagged1-Notch signaling.</P>

< 전시-P-56 > Comparative studies of air-coupled ultrasonic and X-ray computed tomography for nondestructive evaluation in fire-retardant wood

( Masumi Hasegawa ),( Hiroyuki Okamura ),( Mami Murakawa ),( Kazutoshi Takeuchi ),( Keiichi Yamada ),( Kiyotaka Uchikura ),( Noriyuki Harada ),( Junji Matsumura ) 한국목재공학회 2019 한국목재공학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.2019 No.1

Some fire-retardant woods with no documented fire performance have occasionally been sold in the market. It is important to know whether the required amount of chemical fire retardant is present in all sections of a wood sample. In this study, nondestructive measurement of chemical retention in fire-retardant treated wood was experimentally investigated using air-coupled ultrasonic and micro focus X-ray computed tomography. Wood samples were impregnated with different chemical concentrations. First, the ultrasonic wave velocities of wood samples were measured before and after impregnation. The percent changes in velocity exhibited a positive correlation with the chemical retention. Second, the images of wood sample were captured using X-ray CT before and after impregnation. The changes in integrated brightness values calculated from the captured images also showed a positive correlation with the chemical retention at a 1% significance level. These findings suggest that it is possible to evaluate the distributions of chemical retention in fire-retardant wood.