Translational Medical Research Commons^™

Knee Joint Loading Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: Link To Patient Reported Outcomes And A Novel Method To Monitor With Wearable Sensors, Alex Spencer

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

Recovery from anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) commonly results in undesirable physical and patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Identification of modifiable factors such as knee contact force (KCF) early in rehabilitation that can improve these outcomes is important due to the rapid decrease in function, quality of life, and joint health in this population. Additionally, if noninvasive measurement of KCFs outside of a traditional laboratory were possible, clinicians could optimize patient treatment with personalized care. Therefore, there are two primary aims to this thesis: 1) quantify the link between KCF and PROs which measure pain, ability to perform activities of daily living, …

Atv Dynamics And Pediatric Rider Safety, James T. Auxier Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

It has been observed through numerous academic and governmental agency studies that pediatric all-terrain vehicle ridership carries significant risk of injury and death. While no doubt valuable to safety, the post-hoc approach employed in these studies does little to explain the why and how behind the risk factors. Furthermore, there has been no prolonged, widespread, organized, and concerted effort to reconstruct and catalog the details and causes of the large (20,000+) number of ATV-related injuries that occur each year as has been done for road-based motor vehicle accidents. This dissertation takes the opposite approach from a meta-analysis and instead examines …

Towards Multi-Lingual Pneumonia Research Data Collection Using The Community-Acquired Pneumonia International Cohort Study Database, William A. Mattingly, Kimberley A. Buckner, Senen Pena

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

Background: Although multilingual interfaces are preferred by most users when they have a choice, organizations are often unable to support and troubleshoot problems involving multiple user languages. Software that has been structured with multiple languages and data interlinking considerations early in its development is more likely to be easily maintained. We describe the process of adding multilingual support to the CAPO international Cohort study database using REDCap.

Methods: Using Google Translate API we extend the supported Spanish language version of REDCap to the most recent version used by CAPO, 8.1.4. We then translate the English data dictionary for CAPO to …

Clinical Research In Pneumonia: Role Of Artificial Intelligence, Timothy L. Wiemken, Robert R. Kelley, William A. Mattingly, Julio A. Ramirez

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

No abstract provided.

A Brain-Computer Interface For Closed-Loop Sensory Stimulation During Motor Training In Patients With Tetraplegia, Sarah Helen Thomas

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Normal movement execution requires proper coupling of motor and sensory activation. An increasing body of literature supports the idea that incorporation of sensory stimulation into motor rehabilitation practices increases its effectiveness. Paired associative stimulation (PAS) studies, in which afferent and efferent pathways are activated in tandem, have brought attention to the importance of well-timed stimulation rather than non-associative (i.e., open-loop) activation. In patients with tetraplegia resulting from spinal cord injury (SCI), varying degrees of upper limb function may remain and could be harnessed for rehabilitation. Incorporating associative sensory stimulation coupled with self-paced motor training would be a means for supplementing …

Translational Modeling Of Non-Invasive Electrical Stimulation, Dennis Quangvinh Truong

Dissertations and Theses

Seminal work in the early 2000’s demonstrated the effect of low amplitude non-invasive electrical stimulation in people using neurophysiological measures (motor evoked potentials, MEPs). Clinical applications of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) have since proliferated, though the mechanisms are not fully understood. Efforts to refine the technique to improve results are on-going as are mechanistic studies both in vivo and in vitro. Volume conduction models are being applied to these areas of research, especially in the design and analysis of clinical montages. However, additional research on the parameterization of models remains.

In this dissertation, Finite Element Method (FEM) models of …

Dual-Display Laparoscopic Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging For Real-Time Surgical Assistance, Jaepyeong Cha, Corey Zheng, Lung Wai Lau

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) utilizes the speckle pattern of a laser to determine the blood flow in tissues. The current approaches for its use in a clinical setting require a camera system with a laser source on a separate optical axis making it unsuitable for minimally invasive surgery (MIS). With blood flow visualization, bowel viability, for example, can be determined. Thus, LSCI can be a valuable tool in gastrointestinal surgery. In this work, we develop the first-of-its-kind dual-display laparoscopic vision system integrating LSCI with a commercially available 10mm rigid laparoscope where the laser has the same optical axis as …

Direct Crystal Formation From Micronized Bone And Lactic Acid: The Writing On The Wall For Calcium-Containing Crystal Pathogenesis In Osteoarthritis?, Anna A. Bulysheva, Nardos Sori, Michael P. Francis

Bioelectrics Publications

Introduction

Pathological calcium-containing crystals accumulating in the joints, synovial fluid, and soft tissues are noted in most elderly patients, yet arthritic crystal formation remains idiopathic. Interestingly, elevated lactic acid and bone erosion are frequently among the comorbidities and clinical features of patients with highest incidence of crystal arthropathies. This work shows that bone particulates (modeling bone erosion) dissolve in lactic acid and directly generate crystals, possibly presenting a mechanism for crystal accumulation in osteoarthritis.

Methods and results

Micronized human bone (average particle size of 160 μm x 79 μm ) completely dissolved in lactic acid in 48 hours, and in …

A Study Of Acoustically Activated Nanodroplets, Songita Choudhury

Theses & Dissertations

Current treatment of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), which is the main pathophysiological event leading to death in the United States, has advanced considerably with the introduction of emergent percutaneous interventions, but there remains an urgent need for novel techniques to rapidly and accurately detect infarcted or ischemic tissue that results from AMI. Ultrasound contrast agents, also known as microbubbles (MB), have become commonplace in echocardiography. However, MBs are purely intravascular tracers and unable to cross endothelial barriers due to size. The limitations of MBs, namely size and short circulation times within the human body, led to the development of phase-change …

Electrotransfer Of Different Control Plasmids Elicits Different Antitumor Effectiveness In B16.F10 Melanoma, Masa Bosnjak, Tanjo Jesenko, Urska Kamensek, Gregor Sersa, Jaka Lavrencak, Loree Heller, Maja Cemazar

Bioelectrics Publications

Several studies have shown that different control plasmids may cause antitumor action in different murine tumor models after gene electrotransfer (GET). Due to the differences in GET protocols, plasmid vectors, and experimental models, the observed antitumor effects were incomparable. Therefore, the current study was conducted comparing antitumor effectiveness of three different control plasmids using the same GET parameters. We followed cytotoxicity in vitro and the antitumor effect in vivo after GET of control plasmids pControl, pENTR/U6 scr and pVAX1 in B16.F10 murine melanoma cells and tumors. Types of cell death and upregulation of selected cytosolic DNA sensors and cytokines were …

Design And Analysis Of A 3d-Printed, Thermoplastic Elastomer (Tpe) Spring Element For Use In Corrective Hand Orthotics, Kevin Thomas Richardson

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

This thesis proposes an algorithm that determine the geometry of 3D-printed, custom-designed spring element bands made of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) for use in a wearable orthotic device to aid in the physical therapy of a human hand exhibiting spasticity after stroke. Each finger of the hand is modeled as a mechanical system consisting of a triple-rod pendulum with nonlinear stiffness at each joint and forces applied at the attachment point of each flexor muscle. The system is assumed quasi-static, which leads to a torque balance between the flexor tendons in the hand, joint stiffness and the design force applied to …

A Novel Hybrid Imaging System To Aid In Surgical Decision Making, Lawrence Yip, Madeleine Van De Kleut, Ivan Kosik, Astrid Chamson-Reig, Jeffrey Jl Carson

Western Research Forum

Background:

Breast cancer accounts for 25% of all cancer cases among women. In breast-conserving surgery, a common treatment, the tumour is excised with a healthy tissue margin. However, detection of the margin can be difficult. Current techniques to guide excision are often insufficient, and re-excision can occur up to 25% of the time.

Methods:

Photoacoustic imaging is a hybrid imaging modality that combines the advantages of optical imaging and ultrasound while using safe non-ionizing light. This project involves the development of a novel imaging system with a new scanner design to overcome common limitations and provide images to aid in …

Characterization Of Left-Ventricular Thrombus Formation Using High Frequency Ultrasound, Kelsey A. Bullens, Arvin H. Soepriatna, Pavlos P. Vlachos, Craig J. Goergen

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Heart failure is a leading cause of death in the United States, and cardiac thrombus, a common morbidity associated with heart failure, significantly increases a patient’s risk of embolic events. The objective of this project is to characterize left-ventricular (LV) thrombus development using high frequency ultrasound imaging in a murine model. C57BL/6J wild-type mice (n=6) were injected intraperitoneally with iron dextran five times a week for six weeks to increase oxidative stress in the heart. Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) was subcutaneously injected daily during the second week to initiate stem cell migration and stimulate endothelial cell activation, thus increasing the …

Using Mathematical Modeling To Unmask The Concealed Nature Of Long Qt-3 Syndrome, Steven Poelzing, Amara Greer-Short, Seth H. Weinberg

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Surface-Initiated Polymerizations For The Rapid Sorting Of Rare Cancer Cells, Jacob L. Lilly

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Cancer metastasis directly accounts for an estimated 90% of all cancer related deaths and is correlated with the presence of malignant cells in systemic circulation. This observed relationship has prompted efforts to develop a fluid biopsy, with the goal of detecting these rare cells in patient peripheral blood as surrogate markers for metastatic disease as a partial replacement or supplement to tissue biopsies. Numerous platforms have been designed, yet these have generally failed to support a reliable fluid biopsy due to poor performance parameters such as low throughput, low purity of enriched antigen positive cells, and insufficiently low detection thresholds …

Modeling The Adaptive Immune Response To Mutation-Generated Antigens, Rory J. Geyer

University Scholar Projects

Somatic mutations may drive tumorigenesis or lead to new, immunogenic epitopes (neoantigens). The immune system is thought to represses neoplastic growths through the recognition of neoantigens presented only by tumor cells. To study mutations as well as the immune response to mutation-generated antigens, we have created a conditional knockin mouse line with a gene encoding, 5’ to 3’, yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), ovalbumin (which is processed to the immunologically recognizable peptide, SIINFEKL), and cyan fluorescent protein (CFP), or, YFP-ovalbumin-CFP. A frame shift mutation has been created at the 5’ end of the ovalbumin gene, hence YFP should always be expressed, …

Clinical Coverage Of An Archetype Repository Over Snomed-Ct., Sheng Yu, Damon Berry, Jesus Bisbal

Articles

Clinical archetypes provide a means for health professionals to design what should be communicated as part of an Electronic Health Record (EHR). An ever-growing number of archetype definitions follow this health information modelling approach, and this international archetype resource will eventually cover a large number of clinical concepts. On the other hand, clinical terminology systems that can be referenced by archetypes also have a wide coverage over many types of health-care information.

No existing work measures the clinical content coverage of archetypes using terminology systems as a metric. Archetype authors require guidance to identify under-covered clinical areas that may need …

Cyberknife Radiation Modeling: Effects Of Relaxed Translational And Rotational Constraints On Healthy Tissue Irradiation, Sudha Bhavaroop Potineni

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The Cyberknife system is a robotic radio surgery instrument that is used to treat cancers in different parts of the human body. Because of its accuracy and precision, it has become one of the best radio surgery systems in the world. However, even with Cyberknife the treatment time for one session takes from 30 minutes up to 120 minutes depending on the size, shape, and position of the tumor in the human body. In this research, a solution is presented to aid in reducing this long treatment time. An algorithm is developed which simulates the amount of the healthy tissue …

Documented Aids Cases As The Basis For Projections Of Adolescence Hiv Infections In The Us, R. Ron Goforth, S. A. Goforth

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Twenty percent of AIDS cases in the U.S. occur in individuals in the age range 20 to 29. The mean incubation time, the time from infection to the onset of AIDS, is in the order of 8 years. Therefore, most of these AIDS cases represent HIV infections that occurred during mid- to late-adolescence. About 800 officially reported cases in the age group 13 to 19 have occurred in the U.S. This low occurrence of AIDS should not be a source of complacency in assessing the need to provide education and behavioral alternatives to this age group. As the predominate mode …