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Radio-opaque formations behind the spinous processes of the cervical spine are really rare. They were described in 1929 for the first time. Sesamoid ossicles are found close to a bone or a joint and are usually small. Some sesamoids form part of normal human anatomy, while others are normal anatomical variants. We report a case of a 73-year-old Caucasian male who visited the outpatient clinic complaining about chronic cervical pain. An oblong sesamoid accidentally discovered during routine anteroposterior (AP) and lateral x-ray, within the nuchal ligament (NL) at the C3-C6 spinous processes level. A cervical MRI scan was performed and the result showed ‘fabella nuchae’. This type of sesamoids are rarely symptomatic, but it should be differentially diagnosed anyway. We review its morphology, the mechanical factors of the region acting throughout life and last, but not least, the differential diagnosis.

The need for cost-efficient, simple and radiation free technologies in clinical diagnostics has orientated the scientific community in the investigation of techniques such as vibrational spectroscopy. Vibrational spectroscopy due to its simplicity both in sample preparation as well as friendly use combined with the technological evolution in data processing and storage could play a promising role in diagnostics even for multifactorial diseases such as osteoarthritis via biofluid analysis. However, despite the related works aiming in synovial fluid there is not a common line in terms of sample preparation. Hence, it is important to establish an effective sample pretreatment protocol to avoid subjectivity and provide the possibility of reliable comparisons among results. In this work, freeze drying preprocessing technique was compared with natural drying in terms of diagnostic performance in 35 knee synovial fluids aspirated from primary osteoarthritic patients with 2 and 4 Kellgren-Lawrence scores. Principal component analysis combined with mean spectra analysis was implemented for this diagnostic purpose. Results have shown that natural drying technique tends to generate more distinct enhanced interclass variations among synovial dried samples compared to freeze drying, despite the latest potential in other biological samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate the infl uence of systematic training in physical growth and biological maturity in prepubertal males and estimate how this affects the physical growth and skeletal maturity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 177 primary school students of the fifth and sixth grade, from schools in Alexandroupolis, participated voluntarily in our study. Questionnaires were used in order to measure physical activity levels. The subjects were subdivided into two groups; control group (prepubertal, whose physical activity was the physical education of their school and which had never participated in systematic training, n = 95) and experimental group (prepubertal, whose weekly physical activity included physical education in their schools and additionally 3-4 training units organized training in various sports clubs in the city, n = 82). The following parameters were recorded: biological age measured by determination of skeletal age; bone density measured by ultrasound methods; anthropometric and morphological features such as height, body composition, selected diameters, circumferences and skinfolds; motor ability features. RESULTS: The experimental group exhibited older biological age (p = 0.033), higher bone density (p < 0.001), lower BMI and body fat (p < 0.001), better anthropometric features and higher performance throughout all motor ability tests (p < 0.05), compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates that systematic physical activity has a positive effect on both the physical and biological maturity of pre-pubertal children. This effect is mainly expressed in bone strengthening as a result of the increased bone density and in improvement of the kinetic skills of pupils who participated in organized extracurricular sport-activities.