Unraveling the associations between voice pitch and major depressive disorder: a multisite genetic study.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) often goes undiagnosed due to the absence of clear biomarkers. We sought to identify voice biomarkers for MDD and separate biomarkers indicative of MDD predisposition from biomarkers reflecting current depressive symptoms. Using a two-stage meta-analytic design to remove confounds, we tested the association between features representing vocal pitch and MDD in a multisite case-control cohort study of Chinese women with recurrent depression.

Unraveling the Associations Between Voice Pitch and Major Depressive Disorder: A Multisite Genetic Study.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) often goes undiagnosed due to the absence of clear biomarkers. We sought to identify voice biomarkers for MDD and separate biomarkers indicative of MDD predisposition from biomarkers reflecting current depressive symptoms. Using a two-stage meta-analytic design to remove confounds, we tested the association between features representing vocal pitch and MDD in a multisite case-control cohort study of Chinese women with recurrent depression.

Epigenetic patient stratification via contrastive machine learning refines hallmark biomarkers in minoritized children with asthma.

Identifying and refining clinically significant patient stratification is a critical step toward realizing the promise of precision medicine in asthma. Several peripheral blood hallmarks, including total peripheral blood eosinophil count (BEC) and immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels, are routinely used in asthma clinical practice for endotype classification and predicting response to state-of-the-art targeted biologic drugs. However, these biomarkers appear ineffective in predicting treatment outcomes in some patients, and they differ in distribution between racially and ethnically diverse populations, potentially compromising medical care and hindering health equity due to biases in drug eligibility.

Identification of infectious viruses for risk-based virus testing of CHO unprocessed bulk using next-generation sequencing.

It is important to increase manufacturing speed to make medicines more widely available. One bottleneck for CHO-based drug substance release is the in vitro viral (IVV) cell-based assay on unprocessed bulk. To increase process speed, we evaluate the suitability of replacing the IVV cell-based assay with next-generation sequencing (NGS).

Genetic association analysis of human median voice pitch identifies a common locus for tonal and non-tonal languages.

The genetic influence on human vocal pitch in tonal and non-tonal languages remains largely unknown. In tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, pitch changes differentiate word meanings, whereas in non-tonal languages, such as Icelandic, pitch is used to convey intonation. We addressed this question by searching for genetic associations with interindividual variation in median pitch in a Chinese major depression case-control cohort and compared our results with a genome-wide association study from Iceland.

Phenotypic subtyping via contrastive learning.

Defining and accounting for subphenotypic structure has the potential to increase statistical power and provide a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity in the molecular basis of complex disease. Existing phenotype subtyping methods primarily rely on clinically observed heterogeneity or metadata clustering. However, they generally tend to capture the dominant sources of variation in the data, which often originate from variation that is not descriptive of the mechanistic heterogeneity of the phenotype of interest; in fact, such dominant sources of variation, such as population structure or technical variation, are, in general, expected to be independent of subphenotypic structure.

Inner ear impairment after stapedotomy: do the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials play a diagnostic role?

Background: Otosclerosis is characterized by a bony remodeling process that ends up with stapes fixation. The hearing impairment can be recovered by surgery by replacing the stapes superstructure. Due to the surgical management of the vestibule, the vestibular examination could provide an insight into the correlation between this kind of surgery and vestibular changes.

xGAP: a python based efficient, modular, extensible and fault tolerant genomic analysis pipeline for variant discovery.

Motivation: Since the first human genome was sequenced in 2001, there has been a rapid growth in the number of bioinformatic methods to process and analyze next-generation sequencing (NGS) data for research and clinical studies that aim to identify genetic variants influencing diseases and traits. To achieve this goal, one first needs to call genetic variants from NGS data, which requires multiple computationally intensive analysis steps. Unfortunately, there is a lack of an open-source pipeline that can perform all these steps on NGS data in a manner, which is fully automated, efficient, rapid, scalable, modular, user-friendly and fault tolerant.

Enhanced recovery after surgery: adherence and outcomes in elderly patients undergoing VATS lobectomy.

Objectives: To evaluate whether ERAS is feasible and beneficial in elderly patients undergoing VATS lobectomy for lung cancer.

Methods: From February 2016 to March 2019, 182 patients were included into a 17-items ERAS pathway. Patients were divided into two groups according to age: Group A (< 75 years) 138 patients and Group B (≥ 75 years) 44 patients.

Association of use of proton pump inhibitors and H antagonists with stomach wall uptake in Tc-methoxy-isobutyl-isonitrile (MIBI) myocardial perfusion imaging.

Background: Stomach wall uptake (SWU) of tracer in Tc-MIBI myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) occasionally leads to imaging artifacts, thereby lowering the diagnostic accuracy. It is less-studied phenomenon for possible link with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) intake. This prospective work looked for association of SWU with PPI intake and compared its incidence with H antagonists (HA) users and patients not on either gastroprotective medication.

18F-FDG PET/CT in Diagnostic and Prognostic Evaluation of Patients With Suspected Recurrence of Chondrosarcoma.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the diagnostic and prognostic utility of F-FDG PET/CT to predict the disease-specific survival (DSS) with FDG uptake and tumor grade in recurrent chondrosarcoma.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of FDG PET/CT findings in 31 previously treated patients (46 studies) with mean follow-up period of 40.7 ± 23.

Real-time intraprocedural F-FDG PET/CT-guided biopsy using automated robopsy arm (ARA) in the diagnostic evaluation of thoracic lesions with prior inconclusive biopsy results: initial experience from a tertiary health care centre.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and appraise the diagnostic utility of real time F-FDG PET/CT-guided biopsy under automated robopsy arm (ARA) guidance for the evaluation of thoracic lesions with prior inconclusive biopsy results.

Methods: PET/CT-guided biopsy of thoracic lesions was performed in patients who had at least one previous inconclusive biopsy. A total of 25 patients (male:female-18 males, 7 females; age: range, 13-75; mean, 53.

Comparative Effectiveness of Ultrasonography, 99mTc-Sestamibi, and 18F-Fluorocholine PET/CT in Detecting Parathyroid Adenomas in Patients With Primary Hyperparathyroidism.

Purpose: Accurate preoperative localization of parathyroid lesion(s) is crucial for successful surgical management of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of ultrasonography (USG) of the neck, Tc-sestamibi (MIBI) imaging with or without SPECT/CT, and F-fluorocholine (FCH) PET/CT imaging in the preoperative localization of parathyroid lesions in patients with PHPT.

Methods: Fifty-four consecutive patients with PHPT were included in this prospective study who underwent preoperative localization of the parathyroid lesion(s) using 3 diagnostic modalities followed by surgery.

Potential Adjunctive Role of Radiosynovectomy in Primary Synovial Osteochondromatosis of the Knee: A Case Report.

Primary synovial osteochondromatosis (PSOC) is a rare but clinically significant cause of morbidity especially in the male population. Surgery is the primary treatment of choice, but the recurrence rate is reported to be high. Moreover, the presence of widespread loose bodies makes it a cumbersome procedure.

First description of a mortality event in adult Pacific oysters in Italy associated with infection by a Tenacibaculum soleae strain.

Summer mortality episodes in adult Pacific oysters have been described since the 1950s in various farming areas. Starting in 2012, a recrudescence of mortalities in commercial-sized oysters was first observed in France and then in Italy, with seasonality extension and translation later in the year. Moribund individuals collected during an event in Italy in December 2014 showed yellowish lesions of the mantle and adductor muscle.

Unsuspected Active Ulcerative Colitis in a Patient With Dermatomyositis: A Rare Association Detected on F-FDG PET/CT During the Search for an Occult Malignancy.

Dermatomyositis is an inflammatory myopathy with the characteristic features of skin rash and myopathy. We here present a known case of dermatomyositis evaluated with F-FDG PET/CT for the presence of any occult malignancy. The scan was negative for the presence of any malignancy.

Utility of early dynamic and delayed post-diuretic F-FDG PET/CT SUV in predicting tumour grade and T-stage of urinary bladder carcinoma: results from a prospective single centre study.

Objective: Accurate pre-treatment grading and staging of bladder cancer are vital for better therapeutic decision and prognosis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the correlation between maximum standardized uptake value (SUV) calculated during early dynamic and post-diuretic fluorine-18 fludeoxyglucose (F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/CT studies with grade and pT-stage of bladder cancer.

Methods: 39 patients with suspected/proven bladder carcinoma underwent 10-min early dynamic pelvic imaging and delayed post-diuretic whole-body FDG PET/CT imaging.

Adenosine Stress Induced Left Bundle Branch Block During Technetium-99m Tetrofosmin Myocardial Perfusion Imaging.

The occurrence of left bundle branch block (LBBB) in electrocardiogram during exercise testing is a relatively rare finding. The incidence of LBBB during exercise testing ranges from 0.5% to 1.

68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT in Primary Hepatic Neuroendocrine Tumor.

Primary neuroendocrine tumors of the liver are a diagnostic challenge. We present a rare case of primary hepatic neuroendocrine tumor in which Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT imaging played an important role in the diagnosis and follow-up.

F-FDG PET/CT imaging and PET-guided biopsy in evaluation and treatment decision in adrenal histoplasmosis.

Histoplasmosis is a rare opportunistic fungal infection. It is commonly seen in immunocompromised individuals from endemic areas. Adrenal glands are frequently involved in the disseminated disease.

Contrast-enhanced fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/contrast-enhanced computed tomography in mediastinal T-cell lymphoma with superior vena cava syndrome.

Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) is a routine investigation for the staging of lymphomas. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography is mandatory whenever parenchymal lesions, especially in the liver and spleen are suspected. We report a rare case of primary mediastinal T-cell lymphoma evaluated with contrast-enhanced PET/CT that showed features of superior vena cava syndrome.

Substantial Increase in Myocardial FDG Uptake on Interim PET/CT May Be an Early Sign of Adriamycin-Induced Cardiotoxicity.

Cumulative cardiotoxicity is a well-established adverse effect of Adriamycin therapy. Although dose dependent, cardiotoxicity has been recently reported to occur even at lower doses than usually proposed. Conventional imaging detection and/or clinical manifestation of the deterioration in cardiac function occur late in the process; thus, it is desirable to have noninvasive markers to detect toxicity at an early stage.

Adrenal tuberculosis masquerading as disseminated malignancy: A pitfall of (18)F-FDG PET/CT Imaging.

Non-invasive characterization of adrenal lesions is a commonly encountered diagnostic challenge. Characteristic clinical and correlative imaging findings may assist in only arriving at a probable diagnosis. Currently, (18)F-FDG PET/CT is considered to provide the most comprehensive imaging information.