Beaumont Health

About: Beaumont Health is a nonprofit organization based out in Royal Oak, Michigan, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Medicine & Population. The organization has 1483 authors who have published 1448 publications receiving 15407 citations. The organization is also known as: William Beaumont Health System & Beaumont Hospitals.

Local and systemic in vivo responses to osseointegrative titanium nanotube surfaces

Abstract: Orthopedic implants requiring osseointegration are often surface modified; however, implants may shed these coatings and generate wear debris leading to complications. Titanium nanotubes (TiNT), a new surface treatment, may promote osseointegration. In this study, in vitro (rat marrow-derived bone marrow cell attachment and morphology) and in vivo (rat model of intramedullary fixation) experiments characterized local and systemic responses of two TiNT surface morphologies, aligned and trabecular, via animal and remote organ weight, metal ion, hematologic, and nondecalcified histologic analyses. In vitro experiments showed total adherent cells on trabecular and aligned TiNT surfaces were greater than control at 30 min and 4 h, and cells were smaller in diameter and more eccentric. Control animals gained more weight, on average; however, no animals met the institutional trigger for weight loss. No hematologic parameters (complete blood count with differential) were significantly different for TiNT groups vs. control. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) showed greater aluminum levels in the lungs of the trabecular TiNT group than in those of the controls. Histologic analysis demonstrated no inflammatory infiltrate, cytotoxic, or necrotic conditions in proximity of K-wires. There were significantly fewer eosinophils/basophils and neutrophils in the distal region of trabecular TiNT-implanted femora; and, in the midshaft of aligned TiNT-implanted femora, there were significantly fewer foreign body giant/multinucleated cells and neutrophils, indicating a decreased immune response in aligned TiNT-implanted femora compared to controls.

Particle swarm optimization for radiation therapy planning

Abstract: The main goal of radiation therapy is to deliver a lethal dose of radiation to the targeted tumor while minimizing the radiation exposure to the surrounding normal tissues and critical organs. Modern cancer therapy has benefited enormously from computer controlled treatment devices with increased precision and capability. However, this increased sophistication also creates new challenges for treatment planning. As the number of parameters in a treatment plan increases, the traditional computational approaches are no longer adequate to fully exploit the potential of the latest treatment devices. This is because at the heart of treatment planning is often a set of substantially non-trivial constrained geometric optimization problems. We introduce a new optimization framework based on Particle Swarm Optimization for planning radiotherapy, and demonstrated its potential by solving an open problem in radiation therapy treatment planning. Specifically, we have applied the new framework to Gamma Knife® radiosurgery and high-dose rate (HDR) prostate brachytherapy. Mathematically, Gamma Knife® radiosurgery is a ball-packing process whose goal is to "pack" some spherical high dose volumes into a tumor volume, while that of HDR brachytherapy is to find the trajectories of some spherical high dose volumes. Both problems are computationally intractable. There is no known algorithm for brachytherapy that can generate the trajectories, which is currently done manually by a physician. The new framework models the spherical high dose volume as kinetic particles and simulates the "swarm" of these particles through a potential field created based on medical constraints and prescriptions. The resulting stable swarm, further refined by least distance programming, is the final treatment plan. We have conducted experiments with real and simulated data. Our results show that the new framework is at least equivalent to current clinical systems, but in the case of HDR prostate brachytherapy it can significantly outperform current clinical systems. We expect that this new framework, due to its clinical advantage, simplicity, and ease of understanding will be widely implemented in clinics making significant impact to Gamma Knife® radiosurgery, HDR brachytherapy, and other radiation therapy modalities.

Probing the Cell Cycle with Flow Cytometry

Abstract: Flow cytometry is a versatile technique to study different aspects of the cell cycle from subpopulations of cells to detailed cell kinetic information. In this paper a basic review of cell kinetic parameters is presented followed by detailed descriptions of the different flow cytometric methodologies that can be used to extract pertinent information for a particular study. The methodologies range from simple DNA profile analysis, the use of bromodeoxyuridine to cell cycle-associated proteins such as the cyclins.

Double-Balloon Endoscopy in Crohn Disease: A Tertiary Referral Center Experience

Abstract: Background Crohn disease (CD) affects the small bowel in 80% of patients. Double balloon endoscopy (DBE) provides the potential for direct and extensive mucosal visualization with the potential for diagnostic monitoring and therapeutic intervention. This study aimed to investigate the safety and effectiveness of DBE in small-bowel CD. Methods From our DBE database, patients with CD at the time of index DBE (January 2004-January 2013) were identified. Data collection included demographics, CD phenotype (age at diagnosis, disease location, disease activity), procedural information, adverse events (perforation, pancreatitis, death), therapeutic intervention (stricture dilation), and outcome (escalation or maintenance of existing therapy, referral to surgery). Results A total of 184 DBEs were performed in patients with inflammatory bowel disease over 162 endoscopic sessions. In this cohort, 115 patients had previously diagnosed CD. A diagnosis of CD was made in 22 patients. Of those with known CD, 140 DBEs were performed in 82 patients; DBE findings led to escalation of medical therapy in 26% of patients, maintenance of therapy in 26% of patients, and surgery in 18% of patients. We considered DBE to have failed in 11% (n = 18) of patients. During 46 endoscopic sessions, in 29 patients, 103 strictures were dilated via balloon dilation. Of patients undergoing dilation with clinical follow-up, 19 of 24 (79%) patients were surgery-free during the study period. Overall, there were 2 perforations. Conclusions We found that DBE is a safe and effective procedure in patients with suspected or established CD. Furthermore, patients undergoing dilation of strictures via DBE had an 80% surgery-free rate within the follow-up period.