Prediction, prognosis and monitoring of neurodegeneration at biobank-scale via machine learning and imaging.

Background: Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are the most common neurodegenerative conditions. These central nervous system disorders impact both the structure and function of the brain and may lead to imaging changes that precede symptoms. Patients with ADRD or PD have long asymptomatic phases that exhibit significant heterogeneity.

TB prevention activities in the WHO European Region.

Background: TB preventive treatment (TPT) is the primary available healthcare intervention to reduce the risk of progression from TB infection to TB disease. The WHO Regional Office for Europe established the European Prevention and Systematic Screening Initiative to End TB (PASS) to scale up activities related to the programmatic management of TPT. In the absence of a system to measure and monitor preventive activities, a baseline assessment survey was carried out to provide a reference to monitor the scale-up of the intervention.

Determinant of catastrophic costs associated with treatment for rifampicin-resistant TB in households in the Republic of Moldova.

Setting: The Republic of Moldova is a lower-middle-income country. Patients with TB face some barriers to accessing TB services. Welfare benefits are available during TB treatment.

TB and poverty: the effect of rifampicin-resistant TB on household income.

Setting: The Republic of Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, also bears one of the highest burdens of rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB).

Objectives: To trace the patients' journey through TB in terms of the relationship with poverty and assess its determinants.

Design: This cross-sectional study used secondary data from a survey assessing catastrophic costs in RR-TB-affected households.

Federated learning for multi-omics: A performance evaluation in Parkinson's disease.

While machine learning (ML) research has recently grown more in popularity, its application in the omics domain is constrained by access to sufficiently large, high-quality datasets needed to train ML models. Federated learning (FL) represents an opportunity to enable collaborative curation of such datasets among participating institutions. We compare the simulated performance of several models trained using FL against classically trained ML models on the task of multi-omics Parkinson's disease prediction.

PASS to End TB in Europe: Accelerated efforts on prevention and systematic screening to end tuberculosis in the WHO European Region by 2030.

Objectives: Outline the objectives, methods, and initial stages of the Prevention and Systematic Screening (PASS) initiative, a complimentary element of the innovative new approach of technical assistance mechanisms of WHO and its partners to countries aligned to the Regional TB Action Plan to End TB in the European Region by 2030.

Design: To provide an objective and critical overview of the existing landscape on TB epidemic in the WHO European Region (the European Region) and ii) identify the strategic significance of proactive measures aimed at approaching TB pre-elimination in the Region.

Results: Interventions primarily include systematic screening for TB disease and treatment for TB infection (TBI).

Federated Learning for multi-omics: a performance evaluation in Parkinson's disease.

While machine learning (ML) research has recently grown more in popularity, its application in the omics domain is constrained by access to sufficiently large, high-quality datasets needed to train ML models. Federated Learning (FL) represents an opportunity to enable collaborative curation of such datasets among participating institutions. We compare the simulated performance of several models trained using FL against classically trained ML models on the task of multi-omics Parkinson's Disease prediction.

Application of Aligned-UMAP to longitudinal biomedical studies.

High-dimensional data analysis starts with projecting the data to low dimensions to visualize and understand the underlying data structure. Several methods have been developed for dimensionality reduction, but they are limited to cross-sectional datasets. The recently proposed Aligned-UMAP, an extension of the uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) algorithm, can visualize high-dimensional longitudinal datasets.

Identification and prediction of Parkinson's disease subtypes and progression using machine learning in two cohorts.

The clinical manifestations of Parkinson's disease (PD) are characterized by heterogeneity in age at onset, disease duration, rate of progression, and the constellation of motor versus non-motor features. There is an unmet need for the characterization of distinct disease subtypes as well as improved, individualized predictions of the disease course. We used unsupervised and supervised machine learning methods on comprehensive, longitudinal clinical data from the Parkinson's Disease Progression Marker Initiative (n = 294 cases) to identify patient subtypes and to predict disease progression.

National policies for delivering tuberculosis, HIV and hepatitis B and C virus infection services for refugees and migrants among Member States of the WHO European Region.

Background/objective: Refugees and migrants to the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region are disproportionately affected by infections, including tuberculosis (TB), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B and C (HBV/HCV) compared with the host population. There are inequities in the accessibility and quality of health services available to refugees and migrants in the Region. This has consequences for health outcomes and will ultimately impact the ability to meet Regional infection elimination targets.

Multi-modality machine learning predicting Parkinson's disease.

Personalized medicine promises individualized disease prediction and treatment. The convergence of machine learning (ML) and available multimodal data is key moving forward. We build upon previous work to deliver multimodal predictions of Parkinson's disease (PD) risk and systematically develop a model using GenoML, an automated ML package, to make improved multi-omic predictions of PD, validated in an external cohort.

Identifying and predicting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis clinical subgroups: a population-based machine-learning study.

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is known to represent a collection of overlapping syndromes. Various classification systems based on empirical observations have been proposed, but it is unclear to what extent they reflect ALS population substructures. We aimed to use machine-learning techniques to identify the number and nature of ALS subtypes to obtain a better understanding of this heterogeneity, enhance our understanding of the disease, and improve clinical care.

Operational Research to Inform Programmatic Approaches to the Management of Tuberculosis in Uzbekistan.

Globally, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) in 2019, a number that has been declining very slowly in recent years [...

Short and long-term outcomes of video observed treatment in tuberculosis patients, the Republic of Moldova.

Introduction: The Republic of Moldova is among the 18 high priority countries for tuberculosis (TB) in Europe. This study compared adherence and short and long-term TB treatment outcomes for TB patients who experienced asynchronous Video Observed Treatment (aVOT) during three months of outpatient treatment versus Directly Observed Treatment (DOT) in operational conditions in 2016-2017 in Chisinau.

Methodology: We used secondary data from the 2016-2017 Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT) that piloted the aVOT Strategy in Chisinau and data from the national TB register.

Tuberculosis Notification Trends and Treatment Outcomes in Penitentiary and Civilian Health Care Sectors in the WHO European Region.

Setting: Tuberculosis (TB) morbidity in penitentiary sectors is one of the major barriers to ending TB in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region.

Objectives And Design: a comparative analysis of TB notification rates during 2014-2018 and of treatment outcomes in the civilian and penitentiary sectors in the WHO European Region, with an assessment of risks of developing TB among people experience incarceration.

Results: in the WHO European Region, incident TB rates in inmates were 4-24 times higher than in the civilian population.

Descriptive Epidemiology of the Tuberculosis Service Delivery Project Beneficiaries in Northwest Syria: 2019-2020.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic communicable disease caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis that thrives in protracted humanitarian crises. It is an important cause of morbidity and mortality burden in the developing world. Globally, TB is the number one cause of death from any single infectious disease agent that plagued an estimated 10 million (range, 8.

Diagnostic Procedures, Diagnoses, and Treatment Outcomes of Patients with Presumptive Tuberculosis Pleural Effusion in Uzbekistan.

Tuberculosis (TB) pleural effusion (TPE) is the second most common manifestation of extrapulmonary TB (EPTB), which remains a great diagnostic challenge worldwide. In Uzbekistan, there has been no formal evaluation of the actual practices of diagnosing and treating TPE. Our cohort study therefore aimed to describe the frequency and types of different diagnostic procedures of TPE during 2017-2018 and assess the association of baseline characteristics and establish diagnostic methods with TB treatment outcomes.

Incidence Rate and Risk Factors for Tuberculosis among People Living with HIV: A 2015-2017 Cohort from Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

People living with the human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) have a higher risk of developing active tuberculosis (TB) disease, and TB remains a major cause of death in PLHIV. Uzbekistan is facing a substantial TB epidemic, which increases the risk of PLHIV developing active TB. Our retrospective cohort study aimed to evaluate the incidence rate and assess the risk factors for developing active TB among PLHIV.

Depression and anxiety symptoms among people with rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis receiving in-patient care in the National Pulmonology Reference Institute in Romania.

Mental health comorbidities are common among tuberculosis patients, with higher prevalence among people with rifampicin-resistant/multidrug-resistant (RR/MDR) tuberculosis.  TB and depression share common risk factors adding to the overall disease burden. There is limited evidence about prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms among tuberculosis patients in Romania.

Factors associated with unfavourable treatment outcomes among people with rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis in Armenia, 2014-2017.

Rifampicin-Resistant/Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (RR/MDR-TB) is recognized as a major public health concern globally. In Armenia, the proportion of RR/MDR-TB is increasing among all people affected with TB. We conducted a nationwide cohort study involving analysis of programmatic data to investigate the rates of and factors associated with unfavourable treatment outcomes among patients with RR/MDR-TB registered by the national TB programme from 2014 to 2017 in Armenia.

Do catastrophic costs impact treatment outcomes in people with rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis in the Republic of Moldova?

The Republic of Moldova is among the 30 Rifampicin-Resistant and/or Multidrug-Resistant (RR/MDR) Tuberculosis (TB) high burden countries in the world. Despite free TB diagnostics and treatment, TB patients face substantial economic losses and this may impact overall treatment outcomes. We assessed if there is an association between TB-related catastrophic costs and TB treatment outcomes.

Operational research as an instrument to address the critical gaps for effective treatment of tuberculosis in eastern Europe and central Asia.

Editorial.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis in eastern Europe and central Asia: a time-series analysis of routine surveillance data.

Background: Among all WHO regions, the WHO European Region has the highest proportion of drug-resistant tuberculosis among new and retreated cases. The 18 high-priority countries in eastern Europe and central Asia account for 85% of the tuberculosis incidence and more than 90% of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases emerging in the region. We aimed to analyse time-series trends in notification rates of drug-resistant tuberculosis among new tuberculosis cases in the 18 high-priority countries in the WHO European Region.