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Scientists report first case of immunohistochemical marker confirming diagnosis of extra-axial dedifferentiated chordoma.

An exceptionally rare and aggressive malignant bone tumor was positively confirmed via the expressions of a DNA protein transcription factor, according to a recent study by American researchers.

"We herein report an exceptional case of extra-axial dedifferentiated chordoma confirmed by the expression of brachyury, the first case report of this kind," reported surgical pathologist Dr. Evita Bonita Henderson-Jackson and her research colleagues from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, United States, in a case report offering literature review and pathologists' perspective, published by the open-access peer-reviewed journal Advances in Modern Oncology Research (AMOR).

Possible long-term consequences from a whiplash trauma can be effectively predicted if the injured persons are subdivided into different risk groups shortly after the car accident. This is shown by a Danish study that was presented at the Congress of the European Academy of Neurology in Copenhagen.

Chronic pain and other neurologic complaints often persist intractably many years after a car accident as consequences of a whiplash injury. Dividing injured individuals into risk groups shortly after the accident allows one to accurately predict which individuals are especially in danger of suffering from long-term effects from whiplash, physically as well as psychosocially.

A team of researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System recently surveyed patients to understand barriers to reducing the use of opioids to manage chronic pain. The results of those interviews are published in the current issue of the journal Pain Medicine.

Millions of Americans take opioid medications daily to manage chronic pain, but there are growing concerns among health care professionals of opioid misuse and overdose. In early 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines, emphasizing a conservative approach to opioid prescribing. For patients already on long-term opioid medications, the transition away from opioid medications can be intensely unpleasant, anxiety-provoking and complex, according to the study.

Taking longer rests between weightlifting sets may benefit muscle growth, say researchers.

The research reveals that men who had longer rest periods between four weightlifting sets showed a significant increase in muscle rebuilding activity - a process that aids muscle growth - compared with those who had shorter rest periods.

Study co-author Dr. Leigh Breen, from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and colleagues recently published their findings in the journal Experimental Physiology.

Patients with atherosclerosis - the buildup of cholesterol and fat in arteries - are at a higher risk of osteoporosis. A new study published in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism shows how the development of atherosclerosis encourages the loss of bone density.

Cells called osteoclasts remove old bone while cells called osteoblasts form new bone. Bone mass is maintained by balancing the number and activity of these cells. The study found that atherosclerotic mice had fewer osteoblasts. While osteoclasts numbers decreased modestly in some bones, there were significantly more osteoclasts than osteoblasts overall, favoring bone loss.

A 26-year-old motorcyclist developed a rare injury in his lower arm due to the repeated nature of intense braking manoeuvres on the racing track.

He was diagnosed with chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS), a disabling condition, usually found in enthusiastic sports participants such as rowers, climbers, and swimmers, and is most commonly observed in the legs, but rarely in the forearm.

The patient was admitted to a sports medicine department in the Netherlands, where he described progressive weakness of his right index finger, and pain, weakness and swelling of his right forearm, for a period of 1 year.

Vitamin D from sunlight and supplements contributes to healthy development of bones and muscles.

Previous studies have indicated that vitamin D is important for bone density, but the authors of the current study were surprised to find that it also appears to benefit early body composition.

To make a good framework for filling in missing bone, mix at least 30 percent pulverized natural bone with some special man-made plastic and create the needed shape with a 3-D printer. That's the recipe for success reported by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University in a paper published April 18 online in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.

This is a sample 3-D printed scaffold that matches the lower jaw of a female patient.
Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine

Each year, the Johns Hopkins scientists say, birth defects, trauma or surgery leave an estimated 200,000 people in need of replacement bones in the head or face.