The addition of serpentine was found to have a profound effect SBE-β-CD ic50 on the reinforcement of the PP matrix. Because of the stronger interactions at the interphase induced by SCA treatment, mechanical properties were improved further in comparison with the untreated composites. Similar thermal and morphological behaviors were recorded for the composites with and without surface treatment. Thermal studies showed an increase in both melting temperature and percentage crystallinity of the composites. Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed that homogeneous distribution of filler was observed at low filler contents, but a

certain extent of agglomeration was also seen at high filler loadings. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 121: 846-854, 2011″
“Study Design. Cadaveric.

Objective: To determine the confidence

with which surgeons should rely on a flexible ball-tipped probe to detect pedicle breeches in the thoracic and lumbar spine.

Summary of Background Data. The reliability of a ball-tipped probe for detecting cortical violations of the pedicle tract has not been studied among fellowship-trained surgeons.

Methods. A total of 134 pedicles were randomized to have pedicle screw tracts with one of six possible options: no violation, anterior, superior, inferior, medial, or lateral violations. see more Five fellowship-trained spine surgeons examined each pedicle, using a standard flexible ball-tipped probe on three nonsequential occasions. The percentage of correctly identified violations, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were calculated for the surgeons as a group and

individually. The Cohen kappa coefficient was used to assess the accuracy of the observers and the interobserver and intraobserver agreement. Finally, we analyzed our results by spinal region to see whether this impacted the surgeons’ ability to detect a pedicle violation.

Results. The surgeons were able to correctly identify 81% of intact pedicles, 39% of superior, BTSA1 in vitro 68% of medial, 74% of lateral, 62% of anterior, and 50% of inferior violations. The sensitivity varied considerably by breech location and surgeon with a range of 18% to 85%. Positive predictive value for each breech location ranged from 12% to 20%. The specificity was 81% and negative predictive value 98% overall. The intraobserver reliability was moderate and interobserver reliability was low in this series. The ability to detect a pedicle violation was significantly better in the lower thoracic region (T6-T12) than in other areas of the spine.

Conclusion. The standard ball-tipped probe was much less reliable than expected. This technique can be used to confirm an intact pedicle but has an unacceptably high false-positive rate and should be used with caution.