Eighty-six percent of these patients were white, 72% were female, and the mean age was sixty-seven years. The severity

of pain in the knee contralateral to the one that was replaced was measured before the knee arthroplasty with use of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain scale, with the scores being grouped into four categories (0, 1 to 4, 5 to 9, and 10 to 20). Poor post-arthroplasty function six months or more after surgery was determined with use of the Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) outcome tool and a clinical performance measure of walking speed. We evaluated the relationship between contralateral pain severity and the functional see more outcomes with use of Poisson regression.

Results: Seventy-two (27%) of 264 patients demonstrated poor post-arthroplasty function by failing to attain the threshold PASS score, and seventy-six (30%) of 250 subjects had

a GSK2399872A Apoptosis inhibitor slow walking speed. As the pre-arthroplasty pain in the contralateral knee increased, there was a steady increase in the proportion with poor post-arthroplasty function (p < 0.0001 for PASS and p = 0.04 for slow walking speed). Compared with patients who had no pre-arthroplasty pain in the contralateral knee, those in the highest category of contralateral pain severity had 4.1 times the risk (95% confidence interval, 1.5 to 11.5) of having poor self-reported post-arthroplasty function. Patients in whom both knees had been replaced at the time of outcome

collection were less likely to have poor self-reported function than those in whom only one knee had been replaced.

Conclusions: Preoperative pain in the contralateral knee is strongly associated with self-reported post-arthroplasty functional outcome and may therefore be a useful indicator of prognosis or a potential target of perioperative intervention.”
“Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were carried out to study the interaction between nanometric Cr find more precipitates and a 1/2 << 111 >>110 edge dislocation (ED) in pure Fe and Fe-9 at. % Cr (Fe-9Cr) random alloy. The aim of this work is to estimate the variation in the pinning strength of the Cr precipitate as a function of temperature, its chemical composition and the matrix composition in which the precipitate is embedded. The dislocation was observed to shear Cr precipitates rather than by-pass via the formation of the Orowan loop, even though a pronounced screw dipole was emerged in the reactions with the precipitates of size larger than 4.5 nm. The screw arms of the formed dipole were not observed to climb thus no point defects were left inside the sheared precipitates, irrespective of simulation temperature. Both Cr solution and Cr precipitates, embedded in the Fe-9Cr matrix, were seen to contribute to the flow stress.