Rising utilization of preoperative CT and advances in technology coincided with a decrease in the negative appendectomy rate for women 45 years and younger but not in men of any age or women older than 45 years.

Chronic patellar tendinitis can be a frustrating diagnostic and therapeutic problem. This report evaluates seven tendons in five patients with chronic patellar tendinitis. The etiologies included "jumper's knee" and Osgood-Schlatter disease. In all cases magnetic resonance images (MRI) showed thickening of the tendon. Some of the tendons had focal areas of thickening which helped establish the etiology. All cases had intratendinous areas of increased signal which, in four cases, proved to be chronic tendon tears. MRI is useful in evaluating chronic patellar tendinitis because it establishes the diagnosis, detects associated chronic tears, and may help determine appropriate rehabilitation.

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Thirty magnetic resonance (MR) examinations of the Achilles tendon were performed: 20 from patients without suspected tendon abnormalities; ten from patients with suspected tendon abnormalities. The appearance of the normal Achilles tendon is hypointense and flattened. Partial tears appeared as high-signal intratendinous collections, complete acute ruptures appeared as tendinous discontinuity, and uncomplicated surgical repairs appeared as areas of tendinous continuity with inhomogeneous signal in the operative site. Chronic tendinitis appeared as a diffuse thickening of the tendon. MR imaging of the Achilles tendon at 1.5 T enabled the determination of the degree of tendinous continuity, which may help with diagnosis, treatment, and the pacing of rehabilitation.

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Ocean acidification is a global issue with particular regional significance in the California Current System, where social, economic, and ecological impacts are already occurring. Although ocean acidification is a concern that unifies the entire West Coast region, managing for this phenomenon at a regional scale is complex and further complicated by the large scale and dynamic nature of the region. Currently, data collection relevant to ocean acidification on the West Coast is piecemeal, and cannot capture the primary sources of variability in ocean acidification through time and across the region, hindering collaboration among regional managers. We developed a tool to analyze gaps in the West Coast ocean acidification monitoring network. We describe this tool and discuss how it can enable scientists and marine managers in the California Current System to fill information gaps and better understand and thus respond to ocean acidification through the implementation of management solutions at the local level.