Shanna E Williams | University of South Carolina Sch of Medicine Greenville (original) (raw)

Papers by Shanna E Williams

European journal of anatomy, 2019

The lumbosacral plexus is formed by the ventral rami of L2-S3 and provides sensory and motor bran... more The lumbosacral plexus is formed by the ventral rami of L2-S3 and provides sensory and motor branches to the lower extremity. The spatial orientation of the lumbar portion of the plexus above the pelvic brim leaves it particularly susceptible to intrapartum injury by the fetal head. Such lesions are subdivided into two groups: upper lumbar plexus (L1-L4) and lumbosacral trunk (L4-L5). Given the root levels involved, upper lumbar plexus lesions produce symptoms suggestive of iliohypogastric, ilioinguinal, genitofemoral, femoral, and obturator neuropathies or L4 radiculopathies. Alternatively, involvement of the lumbosacral trunk can imitate a common fibular (peroneal) neuropathy or L5 radiculopathy. This symptomatic overlap with various neuropathies and radiculopathies, makes diagnosis of such lesions particularly challenging. To assist in the clinical diagnosis of intrapartum lumbosacral plexopathies, we provide an overview of the motor, sensory, and reflex deficits associated with ...

Journal of Emergencies, Trauma, and Shock, 2020

Background: This study aimed to characterize bodily injury patterns associated with helmet usage ... more Background: This study aimed to characterize bodily injury patterns associated with helmet usage by comparing trauma sustained by helmeted and helmetless cyclists admitted to a large US health-care system. Materials and Methods: A prospective trauma registry associated with a large regional United States health-care network was queried for bicycle injuries resulting in hospital admission over a 5-year period. Data pertaining to helmet usage, demographics, injury description (s), Abbreviated Injury Scale score, Injury Severity Score, and hospital length of stay were collected from 140 patients treated for bicycle-related injuries. Mann–Whitney tests were performed. Results: Fifty-six of the injured cyclists were helmeted (40%) and 84 were not helmeted (60%). A significantly greater proportion of helmeted cyclists exhibited abrasions and a higher incidence of injury across all injury types (P = <0.001 and 0.003). The number and severity of injury to the external body (P = <0.001...

Biology, 2021

One of the parameters forensic anthropologists have traditionally estimated is ancestry, which is... more One of the parameters forensic anthropologists have traditionally estimated is ancestry, which is used in the United States as a proxy for social race. Its use is controversial because the biological race concept was debunked by scientists decades ago. However, many forensic anthropologists contend, in part, that because social race categories used by law enforcement can be predicted by cranial variation, ancestry remains a necessary parameter for estimation. Here, we use content analysis of the Journal of Forensic Sciences for the period 2009–2019 to demonstrate the use of various nomenclature and resultant confusion in ancestry estimation studies, and as a mechanism to discuss how forensic anthropologists have eschewed a human variation approach to studying human morphological differences in favor of a simplistic and debunked typological one. Further, we employ modern geometric morphometric and spatial analysis methods on craniofacial coordinate anatomical landmarks from several L...

Cureus, 2021

The internal carotid arteries are one of the primary suppliers of the Circle of Willis and cerebr... more The internal carotid arteries are one of the primary suppliers of the Circle of Willis and cerebral blood flow, but the rare case of agenesis of the internal carotid artery can impair the functional redundancies of cerebral blood supply. In this study, routine, medical education-focused cadaveric dissection of an 80-year-old male cadaver (cause of death was ventricular tachycardia) was performed. A case of agenesis of the left internal carotid artery and the carotid canal was identified. Upon investigation, we found that the compensatory pattern of irrigation in the Circle of Willis did not conform to previously described cases in the scientific literature. Further literature review suggested that such agenesis can be associated with a wide range of conditions from stroke, migraine, tinnitus, and Horner's syndrome. Due to the altered blood flow pattern, we caution the reading physician regarding the potential for ischemia and iatrogenic damage, particularly of the pituitary gland and eye. We suggest the use of neuroangiographic imaging in cases of agenesis of an internal carotid artery.

Anatomical Sciences Education, 2017

Much of the content delivered during medical students' preclinical years is assessed nationally b... more Much of the content delivered during medical students' preclinical years is assessed nationally by such testing as the United States Medical Licensing Examination V R (USMLE V R) Step 1 and Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination V R (COMPLEX-USA V R) Step 1. Improvement of student study/learning strategies skills is associated with academic success in internal and external (USMLE Step 1) examinations. This research explores the strength of association between the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) scores and student performance in the anatomical sciences and USMLE Step 1 examinations. The LASSI inventory assesses learning and study strategies based on ten subscale measures. These subscales include three components of strategic learning: skill (Information processing, Selecting main ideas, and Test strategies), will (Anxiety, Attitude, and Motivation) and self-regulation (Concentration, Time management, Self-testing, and Study aid). During second year (M2) orientation, 180 students (Classes of 2016, 2017, and 2018) were administered the LASSI survey instrument. Pearson Product-Moment correlation analyses identified significant associations between five of the ten LASSI subscales (Anxiety, Information processing, Motivation, Selecting main idea, and Test strategies) and students' performance in the anatomical sciences and USMLE Step 1 examinations. Identification of students lacking these skills within the anatomical sciences curriculum allows targeted interventions, which not only maximize academic achievement in an aspect of an institution's internal examinations, but in the external measure of success represented by USMLE Step 1 scores.

Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2008

This study evaluates issues of precision, repeatability, and validation in three-dimensional (3D)... more This study evaluates issues of precision, repeatability, and validation in three-dimensional (3D) landmark coordinates. Two observers collected 19 homologous cranial landmarks from three skulls during three separate digitizing sessions. Statistical analysis was conducted on the 171 interlandmark distances (ILDs) derived from the original coordinate data. A mixed model ANOVA detected significant within-subject error in 54 of the 171 ILDs (i.e., 32%). A GLM procedure revealed significant between-observer variation in 14 ILDs and significant observer-by-session differences in 13 ILDs. The majority of these differences involved ILDs with type 3 landmarks as endpoints, such as euryon and alare. Unlike type 1 and 2 landmarks which are biologically informative in all directions, type 3 landmarks contain a substantial arbitrary component. Thus, it is not surprising type 3 landmarks displayed significant digitizing error. Given these results, we caution researchers to be mindful of type 3 landmarks measurement discrepancies when selecting landmarks for coordinate data evaluation.

Trauma, 2017

Background: Despite considerable health and environmental benefits, cycling is also associated wi... more Background: Despite considerable health and environmental benefits, cycling is also associated with a risk of injury. Yet, variation in the patterns of cycling trauma which manifests by gender, age, and race/ethnicity is ill-defined. This retrospective study aims to characterize injury patterns in different demographic groups of bicyclists admitted to the Greenville Health System in South Carolina. Patients and methods: In this IRB-approved, retrospective study, five years of patient data (2010-2014) were gathered from seven emergency departments associated with the Greenville Health System. A total of 155 adult patients hospitalized for bicycle-related trauma were examined in terms of demographics (age, gender, and race) and injury. Injuries were categorized by type, region, and severity. Non-parametric tests were performed to study the effect of demographic characteristics on injury presentation. Results: Spinal cord (p ¼ 0.003) and internal organ injuries (p ¼ 0.000) were significantly more common in men. External body injuries were also more prevalent and severe in men (p ¼ 0.05), while injury to the extremities and pelvic region was more common and severe in women (p ¼ 0.02). Herniations (p ¼ 0.028), internal organ injuries (p ¼ 0.000), and abrasions (p ¼ 0.04) occurred more often in White cyclists. This group was also more likely to be wearing a helmet at the time of accident (p ¼ 0.00). Finally, while hematomas were more prevalent in older adults (!55 years) cyclists (p ¼ 0.01), this population was also more also likely to wear a helmet than young adults (18-34 years) cyclists (p ¼ 0.025). Conclusion: Demographic differences exist in the types and severity of cycling trauma. These differences should be considered during the identification and management of bicycle-related trauma.

Medical Hypotheses, 2020

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

The Anatomical Record, 2021

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has brought to the public eye longstanding issues of social... more The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has brought to the public eye longstanding issues of social and racial injustice which have permeated the experiences of individuals of African ancestry in the United States and abroad for centuries. Motivated by a desire to disassemble a framework of systemic racism, the BLM movement has infiltrated numerous social and political arenas including the sciences, demanding change. The impact of the BLM movement is evident in the attention recently garnered by protests of museum skeletal collections' acquisition and handling of African/African American human remains. It is from this vantage point that we explore the ethical issues pervasive within United States skeletal collections and forensically relevant issues surrounding the unclaimed decedents of marginalized populations; colonial/imperial ideological formations, which construct and sustain power differentials in anatomization; and conceive of a path forward that prioritizes personhood.

Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, 2010

The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepa... more The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report:

Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2002

Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2016

Chronic kidney disease is an increasing public health issue. Prevalence has been estimated to be ... more Chronic kidney disease is an increasing public health issue. Prevalence has been estimated to be 8-16% worldwide. Complications include increased mortality including cardiovascular mortality, progression of kidney disease, acute kidney injury, cognitive decline, anemia, disorders of mineral and bone, and fractures. Two types healing cells, pluripotent stem cells and totipotent stem cells, have been located, isolated and characterized from skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, bone marrow, dermis, and blood of adult animals, including humans. The current study was undertaken to determine whether these two populations of healing cells were present in the kidney of the adult rat. Adult rats were euthanized following the guidelines of Mercer University's IACUC. The kidneys were harvested, fixed, cryosectioned and stained with two antibodies diagnostic for these healing cells, i.e., stage-specific embryonic antigen-4 (SSEA-4) for pluripotent stem cells and carcinoembryonic antigen-cell adhesion molecule-1 (CEA-CAM-1) for totipotent stem cells. Cells staining for SSEA-4 were located amongst the tubules in the medulla of the kidney, whereas cells staining for CEA-CAM-1 were located among the glomeruli in the cortex of the kidney and among the tubules in the medulla of the kidney. This is the first report of native populations of both pluripotent and totipotent healing cells in the adult rat kidney. Studies are ongoing to address their functional significance during normal kidney maintenance and repair.

Pulmonary disease is a source of serous morbidity and mortality. Cell treatments offer hope for r... more Pulmonary disease is a source of serous morbidity and mortality. Cell treatments offer hope for rejuvenation and repair of damaged lungs. The possibility of using maintenance cells and/or healing cells to repair damaged lungs has been studied for nearly two decades. This paper reviews pertinent research investigating the different models and approaches that have been studied concerning the use of donor-derived cells to increase alveolar stem cells in damaged lungs.