Sujee Jeyapalina

1 INTRODUCTION It is estimated that 1 in 190 people in the United States live with the loss of a limb, and this number is expected to double by the year 2050.1 Diabetic and arteriosclerotic dysvascular disease are the most common causes of limb loss, followed by trauma, malignancy, and congenital limb deficiency.2, 3 Socket-suspension systems remain the current standard of care for restoring functional support to patients following amputation.

Fig 2. Boxplots showing a 5-number summary (minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile, and maximum) for first and last serum PCT levels and stratified based on final outcomes. The majority of the first test values were obtained within 2–16 days of hospitalization, while the last value was immediately prior to the reported outcomes of hospital discharge, mechanical ventilation, or in-hospital death.

Gene expression and enrichment analyses The majority of Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) identified (Table 3) were protein-coding genes. Some non-coding genes were identified, which included lncRNA, miRNA, snRNA, and snoRNA gene types. The DEGs highlighted in this section had a log fold-change (log2FC) less than -1 or greater than 1 and were grouped into inflammation (Fig 3) and bone-remodeling (Fig 4) categories based on their associated GO annotations.