Anatomy Commons^™

Once Upon A Microscopic Slide: The Story Of Histology, Inaya Hussein, Mohamad Raad, Rawan Safa, Rosalyn A. Jurjus, Abdo Jurjus

Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Faculty Publications

For centuries, histology has maintained its remarkable place in the medical curriculum. However, its teaching has been influenced by the new technological advancement that has reshaped medicine teaching into a more modern student-friendly form. Since its inception in the 18th century, the discipline of histology has progressed hand in hand with the advancements in microscopy and microscopic technologies, including immunohistochemistry. In the traditional curriculum of USA medical schools, especially after the first Flexner’s report of 1910, histology was considered as very essential topic for a physician studying the “Art and Science” of medicine. In this era, the teaching relied more …

Atrial Fibrillation: Biophysics, Molecular Mechanisms, And Novel Therapies., Alexey V. Glukhov, Leonid V. Rosenshtraukh, Anamika Bhargava, Michele Miragoli, Bas J. D. Boukens

Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Improving Anatomical Knowledge Through Interactive Modules On The Ob/Gyn Clinical Clerkship, Artin Galoosian, Jill A. Krapf, Kirsten Brown, Gisela Butera, Ellen F. Goldman, Rosalyn A. Jurjus

Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Faculty Posters and Presentations

The goal of this study is to evaluate the impact of a newly designed interactive method of teaching clinically relevant anatomy to medical students on the OB/GYN clerkship. A 20-question multiple-choice exam was administered to 143 consenting third-year medical students at the beginning and end of each OB/GYN rotation. Students participated in a skills lab with preparatory e-modules that linked anatomy to clinical applications during each rotation. Topics included perineal muscle anatomy (laceration), anterior abdominal wall anatomy (cesarean section), vulvovaginal and uterine anatomy (IUD), and pelvic organ, vasculature, and neural anatomy (hysterectomy). Mean scores improved significantly after the nesting of …

High Fat High Cholesterol Diet (Western Diet) Aggravates Atherosclerosis, Hyperglycemia And Renal Failure In Nephrectomized Ldl Receptor Knockout Mice: Role Of Intestine Derived Lipopolysaccharide, Siddhartha S. Ghosh, Samuel Righi, Richard Krieg, Le Kang, Daniel Carl, Jing Wang, H. Davis Massey, Domenic A. Sica, Todd W. B. Gehr, Shobha Ghosh

Anatomy and Neurobiology Publications

A high fat meal, frequently known as western diet (WD), exacerbates atherosclerosis and diabetes. Both these diseases are frequently associated with renal failure. Recent studies have shown that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) leaks into the circulation from the intestine in the setting of renal failure and after WD. However, it is not clear how renal function and associated disorders are affected by LPS. This study demonstrates that circulatory LPS exacerbates renal insufficiency, atherosclerosis and glucose intolerance. Renal insufficiency was induced by 2/3 nephrectomy in LDL receptor knockout mice. Nx animals were given normal diet (Nx) or WD (Nx+WD). The controls were sham …

Elucidating The Role Of Injury-Induced Electric Fields (Efs) In Regulating The Astrocytic Response To Injury In The Mammalian Central Nervous System, Matthew L. Baer, Scott C. Henderson, Raymond J. Colello

Anatomy and Neurobiology Publications

Injury to the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS) induces astrocytes to change their morphology, to increase their rate of proliferation, and to display directional migration to the injury site, all to facilitate repair. These astrocytic responses to injury occur in a clear temporal sequence and, by their intensity and duration, can have both beneficial and detrimental effects on the repair of damaged CNS tissue. Studies on highly regenerative tissues in non-mammalian vertebrates have demonstrated that the intensity of direct-current extracellular electric fields (EFs) at the injury site, which are 50–100 fold greater than in uninjured tissue, represent a potent signal …

Research Round-Up: Manual Muscle Testing, Mary Insana Fisher, Shana Harrington

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Manual muscle testing was developed in response to the need to assess muscle strength losses during the polio outbreak in early part of the 20th century. The development of this original method is credited to Wilhelmine Wright and Robert W. Lovett, MD. Wright presented this method in 1912 in the Boston Medical Surgical Journal, and Lovett expanded the description of the testing method in 1916 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The development of quantifying muscle strength by rating force generated against external resistance was an important development in objectifying assessment methods of the time.

Today, manual muscle …

Histological Sequences Of Long Bone Development In The New Zealand White Rabbits, Yasser A. Ahmed, Eman A. Abdelrahim, Fatma Khalil

Histology Collection

Long bone development occurred through endochondral ossification. The current study investigated the main histological changes associated with the development of humerus from the New Zealand white rabbits. The upper limb or humerus during embryonic (12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 24 and 27 days) and neonatal (3 and 7 days) development was processed for light microscopy. Three stages preceded endochondral ossification; limb bud (mesenchymal cells), cartilage primordia (mesenchymal condensation and differentiation into chondrocytes) and cartilage template (organization of chondrocytes into proliferative and hypertrophic zones) by 12, 14 and 15 days, respectively. At day 16, cartilage template elongated forming a cartilaginous …

A General Framework For Animal Density Estimation From Acoustic Detections Across A Fixed Microphone Array, Ben C. Stevenson, David L. Borchers, Res Altwegg, René Swift, Douglas M. Gillespie, G. John Measey

Bioacoustics Collection

1. Acoustic monitoring can be an efficient, cheap, non‐invasive alternative to physical trapping of individuals. Spatially explicit capture–recapture (SECR) methods have been proposed to estimate calling animal abundance and density from data collected by a fixed array of microphones. However, these methods make some assumptions that are unlikely to hold in many situations, and the consequences of violating these are yet to be investigated.
2. We generalize existing acoustic SECR methodology, enabling these methods to be used in a much wider variety of situations. We incorporate time‐of‐arrival (TOA) data collected by the microphone array, increasing the precision of calling animal density estimates. …

Identifying Cases Of Undiagnosed, Clinically Significant Copd In Primary Care: Qualitative Insight From Patients In The Target Population, Nancy K. Leidy, Katherine Kim, Elizabeth D. Bacci, Barbara P. Yawn, David M. Mannino, Byron M. Thomashow, R. Graham Barr, Stephen I. Rennard, Julia F. Houfek, Meilan K. Han, Catherine A. Meldrum, Barry J. Make, Russ P. Bowler, Anna W. Steenrod, Lindsey T. Murray, John W. Walsh, Fernando Martinez, High-Risk-Copd Screening Study Group

Journal Articles: Pulmonary & Critical Care Med

BACKGROUND: Many cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are diagnosed only after significant loss of lung function or during exacerbations.

AIMS: This study is part of a multi-method approach to develop a new screening instrument for identifying undiagnosed, clinically significant COPD in primary care.

METHODS: Subjects with varied histories of COPD diagnosis, risk factors and history of exacerbations were recruited through five US clinics (four pulmonary, one primary care). Phase I: Eight focus groups and six telephone interviews were conducted to elicit descriptions of risk factors for COPD, recent or historical acute respiratory events, and symptoms to inform the …

The Need For Theory To Guide Concussion Research, Dennis Molfese

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

While the focus on concussion research has expanded greatly over the past decade, progress in identifying the mechanisms and consequences of head injury, the recovery path and the development of potential interventions to facilitate recovery have been largely absent. Instead, the field has largely progressed through an accumulation of data without the guidance of any systematic theory to guide the formulation of research questions or generate testable hypotheses. As part of this special issue on sports concussion, we advance a theory to describe the evolution of a neural network during the development of a cognitive process as well as the …

Resting-State Brain Connectivity After Surgical And Behavioral Weight Loss, Rebecca J. Lepping, Amanda S. Bruce, Alex Francisco, Hung-Wen Yeh, Laura E. Martin, Joshua N. Powell, Laura Hancock, Trisha M. Patrician, Florence J. Breslin, Niazy Selim, Joseph E. Donnelly, William M. Brooks, Cary R. Savage, W. Kyle Simmons, Jared M. Bruce

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Objective: Changes in food-cue neural reactivity associated with behavioral and surgical weight loss interventions have been reported. Resting functional connectivity represents tonic neural activity that may contribute to weight loss success. This study explores whether intervention type is associated with differences in functional connectivity after weight loss. Methods: Fifteen participants with obesity were recruited prior to adjustable gastric banding surgery. Thirteen demographically matched participants with obesity were selected from a separate behavioral diet intervention. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was collected 3 months after surgery/ behavioral intervention. ANOVA was used to examine post-weight loss differences between the two groups in …

Differences In Prefrontal Cortex Activation And Deactivation During Strategic Episodic Verbal Memory Encoding In Mild Cognitive Impairment, Joana B. Balardin, Marcelo C. Batistuzzo, Maria Da Graca Moraes Martin, Joao R. Sato, Jerusa Smid, Claudia Porto, Cary R. Savage, Ricardo Nitrini, Edson Amaro Jr., Eliane C. Miotto

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

In this study we examined differences in fMRI activation and deactivation patterns during episodic verbal memory encoding between individuals with MCI (n = 18) and healthy controls (HCs) (n = 17). Participants were scanned in two different sessions during the application of self-initiated or directed instructions to apply semantic strategies at encoding of word lists. MCI participants showed reduced free recall scores when using self-initiated encoding strategies that were increased to baseline controls' level after directed instructions were provided. During directed strategic encoding, greater recruitment of frontoparietal regions was observed in both MCI and control groups; group differences …

Design Of A Multi-Center Immunophenotyping Analysis Of Peripheral Blood, Sputum And Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid In The Subpopulations And Intermediate Outcome Measures In Copd Study (Spiromics), Christine M. Freeman, Sean Crudgington, Valerie R. Stolberg, Jeanette P. Brown, Joanne Sonstein, Neil E. Alexis, Claire M. Doerschuk, Patricia V. Basta, Elizabeth E. Carretta, David J. Couper, Annette T. Hastie, Robert J. Kaner, Wanda K. O'Neal, Robert Paine, Stephen I. Rennard, Daichi Shimbo, Prescott G. Woodruff, Michelle Zeidler, Jeffrey L. Curtis

Journal Articles: Pulmonary & Critical Care Med

BACKGROUND: Subpopulations and Intermediate Outcomes in COPD Study (SPIROMICS) is a multi-center longitudinal, observational study to identify novel phenotypes and biomarkers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In a subset of 300 subjects enrolled at six clinical centers, we are performing flow cytometric analyses of leukocytes from induced sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and peripheral blood. To minimize several sources of variability, we use a "just-in-time" design that permits immediate staining without pre-fixation of samples, followed by centralized analysis on a single instrument.

METHODS: The Immunophenotyping Core prepares 12-color antibody panels, which are shipped to the six Clinical Centers shortly before …

The Effect Of Statins On Blood Gene Expression In Copd, Ma'en Obeidat, Nick Fishbane, Yunlong Nie, Virginia Chen, Zsuzsanna Hollander, Scottj Tebbutt, Yohan Bossé, Raymond T. Ng, Bruce E. Miller, Bruce Mcmanus, Stephen I. Rennard, Peter D. Paré, Don D. Sin

Journal Articles: Pulmonary & Critical Care Med

BACKGROUND: COPD is currently the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. Statins are lipid lowering agents with documented cardiovascular benefits. Observational studies have shown that statins may have a beneficial role in COPD. The impact of statins on blood gene expression from COPD patients is largely unknown.

OBJECTIVE: Identify blood gene signature associated with statin use in COPD patients, and the pathways underpinning this signature that could explain any potential benefits in COPD.

METHODS: Whole blood gene expression was measured on 168 statin users and 451 non-users from the ECLIPSE study using the Affymetrix Human Gene 1.1 ST microarray chips. …

3d Mr Ventricle Segmentation In Pre-Term Infants With Post-Hemorrhagic Ventricle Dilation, Wu Qiu, Jing Yuan, Jessica Kishimoto, Yimin Chen

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) or bleed within the brain is a common condition among pre-term infants that occurs in very low birth weight preterm neonates. The prognosis is further worsened by the development of progressive ventricular dilatation, i.e., post-hemorrhagic ventricle dilation (PHVD), which occurs in 10-30% of IVH patients. In practice, predicting PHVD accurately and determining if that specific patient with ventricular dilatation requires the ability to measure accurately ventricular volume. While monitoring of PHVD in infants is typically done by repeated US and not MRI, once the patient has been treated, the follow-up over the lifetime of the patient is …

Quantification Of Cerebral Ventricle Volume Change Of Preterm Neonates Using 3d Ultrasound Images, Yimin Chen, Jessica Kishimoto, Wu Qiu, Sandrine De Ribaupierre, Aaron Fenster, Bernard Chiu

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is a major cause of brain injury in preterm neonates. Quantitative measurement of ventricular dilation or shrinkage is important for monitoring patients and in evaluation of treatment options. 3D ultrasound (US) has been used to monitor the ventricle volume as a biomarker for ventricular dilation. However, volumetric quantification does not provide information as to where dilation occurs. The location where dilation occurs may be related to specific neurological problems later in life. For example, posterior horn enlargement, with thinning of the corpus callosum and parietal white matter fibres, could be linked to poor visuo-spatial abilities seen in …

Temperamental Variation In Learned Irrelevance In Humans, Aleksandra Gruszka, Adrian M. Owen

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

BACKGROUND Learned irrelevance (LIRR) represents one of the mechanisms of attentional set-shifting and refers to the inability to attend to, or to learn about, any aspect of a stimulus previously experienced as irrelevant. Although it has been extensively studied in the context of clinical populations, not much is known about LIRR effects in relation to normal variation in individual differences. The present study was designed to assess how temperamental factors may modulate LIRR. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURES Sixty-eight healthy volunteers performed a visual discrimination learning task modelled after Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. To test the susceptibility to learned irrelevance, participants were …

Records Review Of Musculoskeletal Injuries In Aeromedical Evacuation Personnel, Jennifer L. Serres, Brittany L. Fouts, Susan F. Dukes, Genny M. Maupin, Molly E. Wade

United States Air Force: Publications

Background: Aeromedical evacuation providers care for patients during air transport. By applying standard medical practices, oftentimes developed for ground care, these practitioners perform their mission duties under additional physical stress in this unique medical environment. Awkward postures and excessive forces are common occurrences among personnel operating in this domain. Additionally, anecdotal reports highlight the risk of developing musculoskeletal injuries for these providers. Currently, there is limited research focusing on musculoskeletal injuries in aeromedical evacuation providers.

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries and associated symptoms in aeromedical evacuation providers to understand the risk and burden of these injuries to …

Pursuing Cardioprotective Health Through Research, Sterling Giles

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

Recent VCU Chemistry graduate Salma Omer and her team of fellow researchers discovered that the supplement Viagra, intended for treating erectile dysfunction, may protect the heart from diabetic damage and damage from excessive alcohol consumption.

Identifying A Gene Expression Signature Of Frequent Copd Exacerbations In Peripheral Blood Using Network Methods, Jarrett D. Morrow, Weiliang Qiu, Divya Chhabra, Stephen I. Rennard, Paula Belloni, Anton Belousov, Sreekumar G. Pillai, Craig P. Hersh

Journal Articles: Pulmonary & Critical Care Med

BACKGROUND: Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), characterized by acute deterioration in symptoms, may be due to bacterial or viral infections, environmental exposures, or unknown factors. Exacerbation frequency may be a stable trait in COPD patients, which could imply genetic susceptibility. Observing the genes, networks, and pathways that are up- and down-regulated in COPD patients with differing susceptibility to exacerbations will help to elucidate the molecular signature and pathogenesis of COPD exacerbations.

METHODS: Gene expression array and plasma biomarker data were obtained using whole-blood samples from subjects enrolled in the Treatment of Emphysema With a Gamma-Selective Retinoid Agonist (TESRA) …