Publications by authors named "Brouwer S"

Group A (GAS) is a human-adapted pathogen responsible for a variety of diseases. The GAS M1 lineage has contributed significantly to the recently reported increases in scarlet fever and invasive infections. However, the basis for its evolutionary success is not yet fully understood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

(Group A , GAS) is a human-restricted pathogen that causes a wide range of diseases from pharyngitis and scarlet fever to more severe, invasive infections such as necrotising fasciitis and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. There has been a global increase in both scarlet fever and invasive infections during the COVID-19 post-pandemic period. The aim of this study was the molecular characterisation of 17 invasive and non-invasive clinical non-1 GAS isolates from an Australian tertiary hospital collected between 2021 and 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background & Aims: Chronic hepatitis D (CHD) is the most severe form of chronic viral hepatitis, with a high risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver-related mortality. Risk stratification is needed to guide HCC surveillance strategies and to prioritize treatment with antiviral agents.

Methods: We conducted a multicenter retrospective cohort of anti-hepatitis D virus (HDV)-positive individuals managed at sites in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Although there is increasing awareness that significant others' perceptions and behavior can affect health outcomes, the role of interpersonal processes between sick-listed workers and significant others in sick leave and return to work (RTW) has hardly been studied. This study aims to examine the associations between illness perceptions, RTW expectations, and behaviors of significant others (engagement, buffering and overprotection) with sick leave duration within dyads of sick-listed workers with chronic diseases and their significant others.

Methods: We used survey data linked with sick leave registry data of 90 dyads.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study highlights the emergence of the M1UK variant of Streptococcus pyogenes as a significant global health threat, differing from the original M1global genotype by 27 SNPs and showing increased virulence through speA superantigen expression.
  • Researchers developed a rapid allele-specific real-time PCR assay to detect M1UK strains and used whole-genome sequencing on 51 clinical isolates to assess the distribution of various emm (sub)types, finding M1UK dominant among the invasive and non-invasive strains.
  • The findings confirm the ongoing presence of M1UK strains in Queensland, Australia, and suggest that the assay can be effectively used for enhanced surveillance of this particular pathogen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Digital health solutions hold promise for enhancing healthcare delivery and patient outcomes, primarily driven by advancements such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science, which enable the development of integrated care systems. Techniques for generating synthetic data from real datasets are highly advanced and continually evolving. This paper aims to present the INSAFEDARE project's ambition regarding medical devices' regulation and how real and synthetic data can be used to check if devices are safe and effective.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: This study examined the associations between implemented disability-related policies and practices (DPP) and sustained employment among partially disabled employees in The Netherlands.

Methods: Employer survey data on implemented DPP were linked to register data on employment outcomes of partially disabled employees (N=6103 employees from N=366 employers). DPP included six domains based on 48 elements: sick leave policy, occupational health and safety services (OHS), prevention policy, reintegration policy, reintegration practices within the current employer and reintegration practices towards another employer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Disability benefit applicants with residual work capacity are often not able to work fulltime. In Dutch work disability benefit assessments, the inability to work fulltime is an important outcome, indicating the number of hours the applicant can sustain working activities per day. This study aims to gain insight into the association between inability to work fulltime and having paid employment 1 year after the assessment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The aim of this qualitative study was to explore ways that employer support influenced successful return to work (RTW) in workers with disabilities.

Methods: We conducted a semi-structured interview study among 27 workers with disabilities in the Netherlands who received a partial disability benefit two years after sick leave and who continued working in paid (part-time) employment after a period of long-term sickness absence (> 2 years). We analyzed data by means of thematic analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Diverging death risks are associated with a wide range of social factors, including not only education and income but also other economic and non-economic resources. The aim of this study was to assess the association of mortality risks with four types of resources: economic, social, cultural and person capital.

Methods: We used data of 2,952 participants from the Disparities in the Netherlands survey and annual mortality data from Statistics Netherlands for the period 2014 to 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To explore return-to-work (RTW) policies and practices for total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients in three European countries.

Materials And Methods: An exploratory study in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands consisting of three aspects: (1) description of the healthcare and social security systems; (2) identification of national RTW guidelines; (3) a survey to gain insight into RTW practices and perceptions of orthopaedic surgeons, including barriers, facilitators, and needs.

Results: Healthcare and social security systems differed (e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: As the effect evaluation of our randomized controlled trial the "Comprehensive Approach of Reintegration for clients with Multiple problems" (CARm) showed no superior effect on re-integration into paid employment of the clients when compared with clients of the care as usual, we conducted this process evaluation to gain insight into whether the intervention was conducted according to protocol.

Methods: Using questionnaires on recruitment, reach, dose delivered, dose received, fidelity, context, and satisfaction we collected data from 40 labour experts of the Public Employment Service of the Dutch Social Security Institute, and from 166 disability benefit recipients dealing with multiple problems.

Results: Only few of the labour experts provided the key elements of the intervention to their clients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aims: For the increasing number of working-age patients undergoing total hip or total knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA), return to work (RTW) after surgery is crucial. We investigated the association between occupational class and time to RTW after THA or TKA.

Methods: Data from the prospective multicentre Longitudinal Leiden Orthopaedics Outcomes of Osteoarthritis Study were used.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To investigate factors associated with fulfilment of expectations towards paid employment after total hip/knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA). Cohort study including preoperatively employed patients aged 18-64 scheduled for THA/TKA. Expectations were collected preoperatively, and 6 and 12 months postoperatively with the paid employment item of the Hospital-for-Special-Surgery Expectations Surveys (back-to-normal = 1; large improvement = 2; moderate improvement = 3; slight improvement = 4; not applicable = 5).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: To improve research and care for patients with post-COVID-19 condition more insight into different subtypes of post-COVID-19 condition and their risk factors is urgently needed. We aimed to identify risk factors of post-COVID-19 condition in general and for specific symptom profiles.

Methods: This study is based on data collected within the Lifelines Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cohort (N = 76 503).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Many people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have problems to stay at work. Patients and health care professionals (HCPs) see the potential benefit of work-oriented clinical care, yet this care is not manifested in current practice. The aim of this study was to develop and implement a program called work-oriented clinical care for kidney patients (WORK) to support sustainable work participation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The aims of this study were: (1) to explore the frequency of discrepancies in work accommodations reported by workers and their supervisors, and (2) to investigate whether these discrepancies are associated with full return to work (RTW).

Methods: We used data from a longitudinal survey study of long-term sick-listed workers and their supervisors (n = 406). Discrepancies in reports on implementing eight types of work accommodations were explored.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Even in the setting of optimal resuscitation in high-income countries severe sepsis and septic shock have a mortality of 20-40%, with antibiotic resistance dramatically increasing this mortality risk. To develop a reference dataset enabling the identification of common bacterial targets for therapeutic intervention, we applied a standardized genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic technological framework to multiple clinical isolates of four sepsis-causing pathogens: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae species complex, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes. Exposure to human serum generated a sepsis molecular signature containing global increases in fatty acid and lipid biosynthesis and metabolism, consistent with cell envelope remodelling and nutrient adaptation for osmoprotection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aims: Residual work capacity and inability to work fulltime are important outcomes in disability benefit assessment for workers with mental and behavioural disorders. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the prevalence and associations of socio-demographic and disease-related factors of these outcomes across different mental and behavioural diagnoses groups.

Methods: A year cohort of anonymized register-data of patients diagnosed with a mental or behavioural disorder who claim a work disability benefit after two years of sick-leave was used (n = 12,325, age 44.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A Streptococcus; GAS) is exquisitely adapted to the human host, resulting in asymptomatic infection, pharyngitis, pyoderma, scarlet fever or invasive diseases, with potential for triggering post-infection immune sequelae. GAS deploys a range of virulence determinants to allow colonization, dissemination within the host and transmission, disrupting both innate and adaptive immune responses to infection. Fluctuating global GAS epidemiology is characterized by the emergence of new GAS clones, often associated with the acquisition of new virulence or antimicrobial determinants that are better adapted to the infection niche or averting host immunity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The pediatric extra-cranial tumor neuroblastoma displays a low mutational burden while recurrent copy number alterations are present in most high-risk cases. Here, we identify SOX11 as a dependency transcription factor in adrenergic neuroblastoma based on recurrent chromosome 2p focal gains and amplifications, specific expression in the normal sympatho-adrenal lineage and adrenergic neuroblastoma, regulation by multiple adrenergic specific (super-)enhancers and strong dependency on high SOX11 expression in adrenergic neuroblastomas. SOX11 regulated direct targets include genes implicated in epigenetic control, cytoskeleton and neurodevelopment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A new variant of Streptococcus pyogenes serotype M1 has been identified in the UK, linked to increases in scarlet fever cases and invasive infections due to its enhanced SpeA superantigen expression.
  • This M1 variant can be distinguished from its predecessor by specific genetic mutations but the reason for the increased SpeA expression remains unclear.
  • Researchers found that a single genetic change in the ssrA gene leads to higher SpeA expression in the M1 lineage in Australia, signaling a need for better global monitoring of such variants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Listeners often experience challenges understanding a person (target) in the presence of competing talkers (maskers). This difficulty reduces with the availability of visual speech information (VSI; lip movements, degree of mouth opening) and during linguistic release from masking (LRM; masking decreases with dissimilar language maskers). We investigate whether and how LRM occurs with VSI.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF