Two blinded independent radiologists assessed all MRI studies to identify meniscal pathology and ACL tears. In patients with MRI results indicating the need for surgical treatment, the sensitivity and specificity of the 1.5 and 3.0-T CDK inhibitors in clinical trials protocols for detecting these lesions were determined, utilizing

arthroscopy as the reference standard, and compared with use of the McNemar test. The kappa statistic for inter-reader agreement in the 200 patients was calculated.

Results: For medial meniscal tears, the mean sensitivity and specificity for the two readers were 93% and 90%, respectively, at 1.5 T and 96% and 88%, respectively, at 3.0 T. For lateral meniscal tears, the mean sensitivity and specificity were 77% and 99%, respectively, at 1.5 T and 82% and 98%, respectively, at 3.0 T. For ACL tears, the mean sensitivity and specificity were 78% and 100%, respectively, at 1.5 T and 80% and 100%, respectively, at 3.0 T. None of the values for either reader differed significantly between the 1.5 and 3.0-T MRI protocols. Inter-reader agreement was almost perfect to perfect (kappa = 0.82 to 1.00).

Conclusions: Routine use of a 3.0-T MRI

protocol did not significantly improve accuracy for evaluating the knee menisci and ACL compared with a similar 1.5-1 protocol.”
“Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) may have better immunological outcomes compared to deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT). The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence of acute cellular rejection (ACR) after LDLT and DDLT. Data from the adulttoadult living donor liver transplantation (A2ALL) retrospective cohort study on 593 MAPK inhibitor liver transplants done between May 1998 and March 2004 were studied (380 LDLT;

213 DDLT). Median LDLT and DDLT follow-up was 778 and 713 days, respectively. Rates of clinically treated and biopsy-proven ACR were compared. There were 174 (46%) LDLT and 80 (38%) DDLT recipients with = 1 clinically treated episodes MMP inhibitor of ACR, whereas 103 (27%) LDLT and 58 (27%) DDLT recipients had >= 1 (biopsy-proven ACR episode. A higher proportion of LDLT recipients had clinically treated ACR (p = 0.052), but this difference was largely attributable to one center. There were similar proportions of biopsy-proven rejection (p = 0.97) and graft loss due to rejection (p = 0.16). Longer cold ischemia time was associated with a higher rate of ACR in both groups despite much shorter median cold ischemia time in LDLT. These data do not show an immunological advantage for LDLT, and therefore do not support the application of unique posttransplant immunosuppression protocols for LDLT recipients.”
“Single fiber fragmentation test (SFFT) was used to investigate the interfacial adhesion in glass fiber-unsaturated polyester composites. A simplified approach was developed for SFFT based on determination of the maximum number of fragments on the fiber at the end of the test. This approach does not involve length measurements and shortens the experiment time to a few minutes.