Citations

Abstract Background Alcohol is consumed by an estimated 137.4 million people in the United States 12 years of age and older, and, as a result, is estimated to have caused about 140 thousand deaths among people 20 to 64 years of age each year from 2015 up to and including 2019. Methods The proposed proposed review of the evidence on alcohol’s impact to health aims to produce conclusions to inform the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2026–2030. A multi-method approach will be utilized to formulate conclusions on (i) weekly (i.e., average) thresholds to minimize long-term and short-term risks of morbidity and mortality, (ii) daily thresholds to minimize the short-term risk of injury or acute illness due to per occasion drinking, (iii) alcohol use among vulnerable populations (e.g., pregnant women), and (iv) situations and circumstances that are hazardous for alcohol use. To inform expert discussions, this project will also include a systematic review of existing low-risk drinking guidelines, a systematic review of meta-analyses which examine alcohol’s impact on key attributable disease and mortality outcomes, and of estimates of the lifetime absolute risk of alcohol-attributable mortality and morbidity based on a person’s sex and average level of alcohol use. The preliminary conclusions produced as a result of this project will undergo public consultation, and data from these consultations will be analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The results of the public consultations will be used to further revise and refine the project’s conclusions. Discussion This project will establish a scientific consensus concerning alcohol’s impact on health. This consensus is imperative for informing the upcoming Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2026–2030, and for better informing individuals about the health risks associated with alcohol use.

OBJECTIVE Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) can cause significant difficulty with driving and a subsequent reduction in an individual’s quality of life due to neurological deterioration. The positive impact of surgery on postoperative patient-reported driving capabilities has been seldom explored. METHODS The CSM module of the Quality Outcomes Database was utilized. Patient-reported driving ability was assessed via the driving section of the Neck Disability Index (NDI) questionnaire. This is an ordinal scale in which 0 represents the absence of symptoms while driving and 5 represents a complete inability to drive due to symptoms. Patients were considered to have an impairment in their driving ability if they reported an NDI driving score of 3 or higher (signifying impairment in driving duration due to symptoms). Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to evaluate mediators of baseline impairment and improvement at 24 months after surgery, which was defined as an NDI driving score < 3. RESULTS A total of 1128 patients who underwent surgical intervention for CSM were included, of whom 354 (31.4%) had baseline driving impairment due to CSM. Moderate (OR 2.3) and severe (OR 6.3) neck pain, severe arm pain (OR 1.6), mild-moderate (OR 2.1) and severe (OR 2.5) impairment in hand/arm dexterity, severe impairment in leg use/walking (OR 1.9), and severe impairment of urinary function (OR 1.8) were associated with impaired driving ability at baseline. Of the 291 patients with baseline impairment and available 24-month follow-up data, 209 (71.8%) reported postoperative improvement in their driving ability. This improvement seemed to be mediated particularly through the achievement of the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in neck pain and improvement in leg function/walking. Patients with improved driving at 24 months noted higher postoperative satisfaction (88.5% vs 62.2%, p < 0.01) and were more likely to achieve a clinically significant improvement in their quality of life (50.7% vs 37.8%, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Nearly one-third of patients with CSM report impaired driving ability at presentation. Seventy-two percent of these patients reported improvements in their driving ability within 24 months of surgery. Surgical management of CSM can significantly improve patients’ driving abilities at 24 months and hence patients’ quality of life.

Purpose To investigate the feasibility and accuracy of 3‐dimensional (3D) iPhone scans using commercially available applications compared with computed tomography (CT) for mapping chondral surface topography of the knee. Methods Ten cadaveric dysplastic trochleae, 16 patellae, and 24 distal femoral condyles (DFCs) underwent CT scans and 3D scans using 3 separate optical scanning applications on an iPhone X. The 3D surface models were compared by measuring surface‐to‐surface least distance distribution of overlapped models using a validated 3D‐3D registration volume merge method. The absolute least mean square distances for the iPhone‐generated models from each scanning application were calculated in comparison to CT models using a point‐to‐surface distance algorithm allowing regional “inside/outside” measurement of the absolute distance between models. Results Only 1 of the 3 scanning applications created models usable for quantitative analysis. Overall, there was a median absolute least mean square distance between the usable model and CT‐generated models of 0.18 mm. The trochlea group had a significantly lower median absolute least mean square distance compared with the DFC group (0.14 mm [interquartile range, 0.13‐0.17] vs 0.19 mm [0.17‐0.25], P = .002). iPhone models were smaller compared with CT models (negative signed distances) for all trochleae, 83% of DFCs, and 69% of patellae. Conclusions In this study, we found minimal differences between a 3D iPhone scanning application and conventional CT scanning when analyzing surface topography. Clinical Relevance Emerging 3D iPhone scanning technology can create accurate, inexpensive, real‐time 3D models of the intended target. Surface topography evaluation may be useful in graft selection during surgical procedures such as osteochondral allograft transplantation.