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E R Braun

Publications and source records attributed to E R Braun.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Motion at the modular acetabular shell and liner interface. A comparative study.

Excessive polyethylene debris generated from a total hip arthroplasty can lead to osteolysis and premature revision. Most of this polyethylene debris comes from the concave articulation. However, abrasive wear on the convex side of a modular polyethylene component also may play a role in this problem. Motion of a modular polyethylene liner with respect to its shell can lead to such abrasive wear. Six samples of modular acetabular components from eight manufacturers were tested for motion between the shell and the liner. Motion at the shell liner interface was detected by five fiberoptic sensors in the x, y, and z planes. Micromotion occurred at the shell liner interface in all designs tested. The magnitude of motion varied between manufacturers, ranging from 5 to 311 microns. Design features that limit motion may be advantageous in limiting the amount of polyethylene debris.

Acetabulum↗

Double-labeled fluorescent probes for 5' nuclease assays: purification and performance evaluation.

An inexpensive method for the purification and evaluation of user-synthesized or crude commercially prepared double-labeled fluorescent probes is presented. These probes exhibit the characteristics required for use in 5'-nuclease assays, including efficient reporter dye quenching, target specificity and susceptibility to cleavage by Taq DNA polymerase during PCR amplification. The method is suitable for research laboratories that wish to develop 5' nuclease assays for the detection of PCR-amplified target sequences to eliminate the requirement for agarose gels and to advance throughput.

5'-Nucleotidase↗

Sequence-specific priming and exonuclease-released fluorescence detection of HLA-DQB1 alleles.

Molecular typing of HLA DQB1 alleles, employing sequence-specific primers (SSP) for PCR amplification, was used to test a novel method that eliminates the requirement for subsequent gel electrophoresis or additional hybridization steps by directly detecting positive reactions. We have evaluated the performance of this fluorescence-based oligonucleotide probe assay to assign the most common DQB1 alleles on DNA from 14 homozygous cell lines and in a blind study of 50 diabetic patient samples that had been previously typed at the DQB1 locus using SSOP and conventional SSP-based approaches. We used a panel of 14 DQB1 SSP primer pairs, internal control primers, and a combination of 4 fluorescent oligonucleotide probes to detect 14 alleles or groups of alleles and controls. We can reliably detect single-base allelic differences, observe 100% concordance with the results obtained using both of the standard methods, and are able to further subtype several alleles that are not easily distinguished using SSOP (e.g. DQB1 *0401/0402 and DQB1 *0302/ 0303). Sequence-specific priming and exonuclease-released fluorescence (SSPERF) detection is technically simple and can be performed in less than 2 hours, including DNA extraction, PCR amplification, data analysis and allele identification. This method is particularly useful for the analysis of large numbers of samples, for which high throughput is critical and for which gel-based approaches are difficult to perform. This technique may also be useful for small-scale class I and class II molecular typing in clinically oriented laboratories.

Alleles↗

Ischemic preconditioning reduces infarct size in swine myocardium.

We evaluated the hypothesis that stunning swine myocardium with brief ischemia reduces oxygen demand in the stunned region and increases tolerance of myocardium to longer periods of ischemia. Wall function was quantified with ultrasonic crystals aligned to measure wall thickening, and stunning was achieved with two cycles of left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) occlusion (10 minutes) and reperfusion (30 minutes), after which the LAD was occluded for 60 minutes and reperfused for 90 minutes. Infarct size (as a percent of risk region) was then determined by incubating myocardium with para-nitro blue tetrazolium. Regional oxygen demand was measured as myocardial oxygen consumption before the 60-minute LAD occlusion in the stunned region; tracer microspheres were used to determine blood flow, and blood from the anterior interventricular vein and left atrium was used to calculate oxygen saturations. After the second reperfusion period, wall thickening in the stunned region was reduced to 1.4 +/- 2.4% compared with 36.7 +/- 2.5% (mean +/- SEM) before ischemia (p less than 0.001). Regional myocardial oxygen consumption after stunning (3.1 +/- 0.7 ml O2/min/100 g) was no different from regional myocardial oxygen consumption before stunning (3.7 +/- 0.6 ml O2/min/100 g). In the nine pigs "preconditioned" by stunning, infarct size was 10.4 +/- 6.3% of the risk region compared with 48.0 +/- 12.7% in the six control pigs subjected to 60 minutes of ischemia without prior stunning (p less than 0.005). The risk regions were similar (14.4 +/- 1.5% vs. 14.6 +/- 1.9% of the left ventricle, preconditioned vs. control pigs, respectively). We conclude that stunning swine myocardium with two cycles of a 10-minute LAD occlusion followed by reperfusion increases ischemic tolerance but that changes in regional demand in stunned myocardium do not predict the marked reduction in infarct size that follows a subsequent 60-minute period of ischemia.

Animals↗