Welcome to the Regenerative Research Roundup, where we look through recently published research and bring you the best of the best in a quick-to-read digest.
This month, we have a few studies looking at PRP in RC tears, prognostic factors for clinical response in KOA, BMA for RC augmented repair, and PRP for ED.
Let's dive in!
Effects of Platelet-Rich Plasma in Tear Size Reduction in Partial-Thickness Tear of the Supraspinatus Tendon Compared to Corticosteroids Injection
Sport Medicine - Open // LOE: ll
Patients with symptomatic partial-thickness tears of the supraspinatus tendon who underwent conservative treatment for ≥ 3 months were enrolled. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to confirm the diagnosis. Fourteen and 15 patients were randomized to receive intralesional PRP and subacromial CS injections, respectively.
PRP product was not characterized but estimated to be only ~2.5x baseline and was leukocyte-poor. This is lower than the established minimum for PRP and may have contributed to the blunted response.
Nonetheless, intralesional PRP injection reduced the tear size in partial-thickness tears of the supraspinatus tendon. Subacromial steroid injection did not significantly affect the tear size. While CS improved functional scores compared with baseline, PRP resulted in better improvement 6 months post-injection.
ACCESS HERE: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-023-00556-w
Prognostic Factors Related to Clinical Response in 210 Knees Treated by Platelet-Rich Plasma for Osteoarthritis
Diagnostics // LOI: ll
The design of this study lends well to answering critical questions regarding prognostic factors related to the response of KOA patients receiving PRP therapy. Authors sought to compare these factors according to demographics, imaging, pain and functional scoring.
210 knees were injected twice at a one-month interval with Arthrex ACP. This is a system that is frequently characterized at <2x baseline and as such it comes at no surprise that less than half of the injected knees were responders.
What is interesting, is that among factors influencing responsiveness, physical therapy and a heel–buttock distance >35 cm were the only two criteria associated with poor response at M7 by multivariate analysis. Age, KL Grade, etc. were not factors.
Prior literature has suggested that with elder patients or those that suffer from later-stage KOA, higher platelet doses are required in the preparation to elicit the same response. This same study design would be well served to improve the therapeutic dose of the product before determining whether response is driven by other factors.
ACCESS HERE: https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13040760
Prospective Randomized Trial of Biologic Augmentation With Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate in Patients Undergoing Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair
Am. J. of Sports Medicine // LOI: l
Authors of this study sought to compare outcomes after arthroscopic RCR (aRCR) with and without cBMA augmentation in 91 patients with 2-year followup. It was hypothesized that cBMA augmentation would result in statistically significant improvements in clinical outcomes and rotator cuff structural integrity.
Patients indicated for aRCR of isolated 1- to 3-cm supraspinatus tendon tears were randomized to receive adjunctive cBMA injection or sham incision.
Functional indices significantly improved in both groups by 6 months and were sustained at 1 and 2 years (all P < .05). Notably, the control group showed significantly greater evidence of rotator cuff retear according to Sugaya classification on 1-year MRI (57% vs 18%; P < .001).
ACCESS HERE: https://doi.org/10.1177/03635465231154601
Is Platelet Rich Plasma Safe and Effective in Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction? Randomized Controlled Study
Urology // LOI: ll
This prospective randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was carried out on 109 participants who attended the outpatient clinics of Benha University Hospitals between January 2020 and December 2021.
Participants were allocated to 2 groups; the PRP group (55 cases) and the saline (placebo) group (54 cases).A two-spin protocol was used to generate 6ml of PRP from 30ml of whole blood. The final product was not characterized, however, we could estimate a theoretical X fold increase of ~3.5x.
Compared to the placebo group, the PRP group demonstrated a significant improvement at the 1 and 3 months follow-up that slightly dropped at the 6 months follow-up (P <.001).
ACCESS HERE: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2023.01.028
If you have any questions or comments regarding the above research, or are wondering how you can apply it to your regenerative practice, please leave a comment below or shoot me an email at cdowns@mdbiologix.com
Cheers!
Connor
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