Institutional experience with implanted cardiac device risk level assessment: Comparing calculation and measurement.

Background: The use of in-vivo dosimetry is a long-standing but also labor-intensive component of risk-level assessment for patients with implanted devices. A calculation-only approach, using treatment planning system (TPS)-calculated doses along with imaging doses estimates when relevant, has the potential to streamline the physics workflow without negatively impacting patient safety.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of using a calculation-only approach for risk level assessment for patients with implanted electronic medical devices.

Association Between Early Immunosuppression Center Variability and One-Year Outcomes After Pediatric Liver Transplant.

Background: Despite the existence of institutional protocols, liver transplant centers often have variability in early immunosuppression practices. We aimed to measure within-center variability in early immunosuppression after pediatric liver transplant (LT) and examine its association with one-year outcomes.

Methods: We analyzed pediatric LTs from 2013 to 2018 in the United Network for Organ Sharing registry, with data aggregated by center.

Rare variants in cardiomyopathy genes predispose to cardiac injury in severe COVID-19 patients of African or Hispanic ancestry.

In one of the earliest reports from China during COVID-19, it was noted that over 20% of patients hospitalized with the disease had significant elevations of troponin, a marker of myocardial tissue damage, that put them at a higher risk. In a hypothesis-independent whole exome sequencing (WES) study in hospitalized COVID-19 patients of diverse ancestry, we observed putative enrichment in pathogenic variants in genes known to be involved in the pathogenesis of cardiomyopathy. This observation led us to hypothesize that the observed high morbidity and mortality in these patients might be due to the presence of rare genetic factors that had previously been silent but became relevant as a consequence of the severe stress inflicted by an infection with SARS-CoV-2.

Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma Tumor Biopsies Show Heterogeneity in Gene Expression Profiles, Genetic Subtypes, and in vitro Drug Sensitivity to Kinase Inhibitors.

Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is clinically challenging due to its location and small biopsy size, leading to a lack of comprehensive molecular and biologic description. We previously demonstrated that 91% of PCNSL belong to the activated B-cell-like (ABC) molecular subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Here we investigated the expression of 739 cancer related genes in HIV (-) patients using NanoString digital gene expression profiling in 25 ABC-PCNSL and 43 ABC-systemic DLBCL, all tumors were EBV (-).