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Amanda Ross, Vikki Gambrill, Chris Main Midwest Bone & Joint Center, Macon, MO, USACorrespondence: Chris Main, Midwest Bone & Joint Center, Macon, MO, USA, Email cmainorthodoc@gmail.comBackground: Musculoskeletal spinal disorders significantly impact patient populations from everyday workers to military soldiers. Effective treatment is critical to minimize the time between injury and returning to work and daily activities. Injection of amniotic membrane/umbilical cord (AMUC) tissue has demonstrated great potential in reducing patients’ pain and has become an increasingly popular treatment option for painful orthopedic disorders.Methods: A single-center, retrospective study was conducted on patients diagnosed with musculoskeletal spinal disorders and subsequently treated with AMUC via epidural and facet injections. Demographics and outcomes related to pain were assessed. Pain was verbally reported by the patient on a scale of 0– 10 where 0 indicated no pain and 10 indicated worst imaginable pain. Complications and adverse events were also reported.Results: A total of 52 patients (average age 40.8 ± 9.6 years) were included in the analysis with diagnoses of spondylosis (n = 44), intervertebral disc degeneration (n = 31), radiculopathy (n = 18), stenosis (n = 2), or other conditions. The cohort’s average baseline pain score was 4.9 ± 2.2 with a mean duration of symptoms for 54.2 months (range: 1– 300 months). After AMUC injection, pain significantly decreased to 3.4 ± 2.3 at two weeks (p < 0.0001) and 3.5 ± 2.2 at 3– 4 weeks (p = 0.0023). For the mean follow-up period of 10.6 ± 5.4 weeks, pain was reduced to 2.8 ± 2.1 (p < 0.0001 vs baseline). No significant complications or adverse events were reported.Conclusion: Use of an injectable AMUC, such as CLARIX FLO, may alleviate pain in patients with painful spinal indications of various pathologies. This study provides further evidence of its safety and efficacy in epidural and facet injections. Further studies are warranted to verify these promising results.Keywords: spinal disorders, chronic pain, treatment, amniotic membrane/umbilical cord, regenerative medicine, injection

A new study investigates the influence of limited instrumental bandwidth on the accuracy of methods uses to determine the density of states from modulated photoconductivity and transient photoconductivity data.

A study was conducted to analyze photocurrent gains of up to 50 in silicon p-i-n structures in reverse bias and examine the effects of different reverse voltage, bias flux, probe flux, wavelength and defect density. High collection efficiencies were determined for low-level probe illumination of the device side. Results indicated that a quantum efficiency greater than unity can be realized by a photogating effect in thick a-Si:H p-i-n diodes under reverse bias conditions.

Research was conducted to examine the effects of bandwidth limitations on the localized density of states (DOS) distribution calculated from transient photoconductivity data by the Fourier transform technique. The argument that the DOS distributions measured from transient photoconductivity data at a high photoexcitation density are valid in certain conditions is used in investigating the conduction band tail in undoped a-Si:H. Results indicate a deviation in the DOS from exponential at approximately 0.15 eV below the mobility edge.