Publications by authors named "Henk Blom"

Advantages of commercial UAS-based services come with the disadvantage of posing third party risk (TPR) to overflown population on the ground. Especially challenging is that the imposed level of ground TPR tends to increase linearly with the density of potential customers of UAS services. This challenge asks for the development of complementary directions in reducing ground TPR.

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Hyperhomocysteinemia and vitamin B12 deficiency have been reported in patients with phenylketonuria. In this study, total homocysteine (tHcy) and methylmalonic acid (MMA) levels were analyzed in samples from 25 phenylketonuria (PKU) patients. Comparisons were made between pre- and post-treatment values (n= 3); on treatment values, between periods with high and normal/low phenylalanine (Phe) levels (n= 20); and in women before, during and after pregnancy (n= 3).

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Two siblings, presenting with a neurometabolic phenotype, were identified with 5, 10-methenyltetrahydrofolate synthetase (MTHFS) deficiency. Whole genome sequencing in both patients demonstrated an homozygous variant NM_006441.3():c.

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Background/aims: Having type 2 diabetes (T2D) in combination with being overweight results in an additional increase in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. In addition, T2D and obesity are associated with increased levels of total homocysteine (tHcy), possibly contributing to the CVD risk. Weight loss dieting has positive effects on several CVD risk factors, but whether it affects tHcy remains unclear.

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Background: Ménière's disease (MD) is a chronic inner ear disorder with a multifactorial etiology. Decreased visualization of the endolymphatic duct (ED) and sac (ES) is thought to be associated with MD, although controversy exists about whether this finding is specific to MD. Recent literature has revealed that two distinct ES pathologies, developmental hypoplasia and epithelial degeneration, can be distinguished in MD using the angular trajectory of the vestibular aqueduct (ATVA) or ED-ES system as a radiographic surrogate marker.

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Purpose: Standard treatment for tinnitus is cognitive behavioral therapy, although level of evidence of effectiveness is low. There is need for a Goal Attainment Scale to evaluate treatment effects based on patient satisfaction. Preliminary work in a clinical sample has identified six common personal treatment goals.

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Article Synopsis
  • Untargeted metabolomics (UM) is being used to screen for inborn errors of metabolism (IEM), and this study analyzed various outlier detection methods for identifying patient profiles.
  • Different outlier detection methods showed varying levels of effectiveness in detecting IEM, with some methods performing consistently well across datasets, while others excelled in more balanced sample conditions.
  • The study highlights the importance of using PCA transformations to enhance method performance and notes that while some methods succeeded in detecting 90% of IEM patients without false positives, further refinements are needed for reliable clinical application.
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Tonsil complaints in adults are common. If conservative treatment fails, there is an indication for surgical removal of the tonsils. The current standard procedure, tonsillectomy under anaesthesia, is invasive, painful, and relatively often leads to complications including postoperative bleeding.

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Objective: This study explores how treatment with intratympanic steroid injection affects quality of life, as well as several subjective complaints in patients with Ménière's disease.

Methods: Patients filled in the Ménière's Disease Outcome Questionnaire (MDOQ) and answered questions about subjective complaints. Scores before and after treatment were compared using paired tests.

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The integration of metabolomics data with sequencing data is a key step towards improving the diagnostic process for finding the disease-causing genetic variant(s) in patients suspected of having an inborn error of metabolism (IEM). The measured metabolite levels could provide additional phenotypical evidence to elucidate the degree of pathogenicity for variants found in genes associated with metabolic processes. We present a computational approach, called Reafect, that calculates for each reaction in a metabolic pathway a score indicating whether that reaction is deficient or not.

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Article Synopsis
  • Patient registries for rare diseases collect data to support postauthorization safety studies (PASS) for orphan drugs, such as betaine anhydrous (Cystadane).
  • The study involved 130 individuals with various vitamin B deficiencies and was conducted from 2013-2016 as a noninterventional, international partnership.
  • Despite many participants exceeding the recommended betaine dose, no new risks were found, and treatment effectively lowered plasma homocysteine levels, leading to revised dosage recommendations for patients over 10 years old.
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Importance: Carbon dioxide laser tonsillotomy performed under local anesthesia may be an effective and less invasive alternative than dissection tonsillectomy for treatment of tonsil-related afflictions.

Objective: To compare functional recovery and symptom relief among adults undergoing tonsillectomy or tonsillotomy.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical trial was conducted at 5 secondary and tertiary hospitals in the Netherlands from January 2018 to December 2019.

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To investigate the correlation between clinical features and MRI-confirmed endolymphatic hydrops (EH) and blood-labyrinth barrier (BLB) impairment. Retrospective cross-sectional study. Vertigo referral center (Haga Teaching Hospital, The Hague, the Netherlands).

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One-carbon metabolism (1C metabolism) is of paramount importance for cell metabolism and mammalian development. It is involved in the synthesis or modification of a wide variety of compounds such as proteins, lipids, purines, nucleic acids and neurotransmitters. We describe here the evolution of expression of genes related to 1C metabolism during liver and brain ontogeny in mouse.

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Early detection of congenital disorders by newborn screening (NBS) programs is essential to prevent or limit disease manifestation in affected neonates. These programs balance between the detection of the highest number of true cases and the lowest number of false-positives. In this case report, we describe four unrelated cases with a false-positive NBS result for very-long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (VLCADD).

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Introduction: Outcomes of surgery for Ménière's disease (MD) remain discordant. Recently, a new surgical procedure in which the endolymphatic duct is clipped was proposed. To date, only one prospective trial assessing this technique was published, yielding promising results.

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Objective: To determine the safety of the non-intubated and intubated adenotonsillectomy by the Sluder method in children DESIGN: Retrospective database study METHOD: We compared the data of adenotonsillectomy by the Sluder method in children until thirteen years of two teaching hospitals from 2014 until 2017. In the Amphia Hospital the procedure was performed without endotracheal tube placement and without perioperative opioids, in the Haga Hospital the patients were intubated and received perioperative opioids. Primary outcome was reoperation for postoperative haemorrhage.

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Untargeted metabolomics is an emerging technology in the laboratory diagnosis of inborn errors of metabolism (IEM). Analysis of a large number of reference samples is crucial for correcting variations in metabolite concentrations that result from factors, such as diet, age, and gender in order to judge whether metabolite levels are abnormal. However, a large number of reference samples requires the use of out-of-batch samples, which is hampered by the semi-quantitative nature of untargeted metabolomics data, i.

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Background: To compare cholesteatoma care internationally and to evaluate outcomes, ear surgeons must use the same terminology. However, a clear universal definition on how to describe the extension, destruction and accompanying morbidity caused by the cholesteatoma is lacking. The practical applicability by means of interrater agreement is assessed for the STAMCO and the ChOLE classification.

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Cystathionine β-synthase (CBS) deficiency has a wide clinical spectrum, ranging from neurodevelopmental problems, lens dislocation and marfanoid features in early childhood to adult onset disease with predominantly thromboembolic complications. We have analysed clinical and laboratory data at the time of diagnosis in 328 patients with CBS deficiency from the E-HOD (European network and registry for Homocystinurias and methylation Defects) registry. We developed comprehensive criteria to classify patients into four groups of pyridoxine responsivity: non-responders (NR), partial, full and extreme responders (PR, FR and ER, respectively).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the relationship between moderately elevated homocysteine (Hcy) levels and myopia, building on previous findings linking severe hyperhomocysteinemia to eye conditions.
  • Conducted on 13,749 participants from the Gutenberg Health Study, the research utilized linear regression models to assess the effects of Hcy on eye refraction over a 5-year period.
  • Ultimately, results show no significant correlation between Hcy levels and refractive errors, implying that moderately increased Hcy might not be a treatable risk factor for myopia.
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Background: Biallelic pathogenic variants in CBS gene cause the most common form of homocystinuria, the classical homocystinuria (HCU). The worldwide prevalence of HCU is estimated to be 0.82:100,000 [95% CI, 0.

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CBS deficient individuals undergoing betaine supplementation without sufficient dietary methionine restriction can develop severe hypermethioninemia and brain edema. Brain edema has also been observed in individuals with severe hypermethioninemia without concomitant betaine supplementation. We systematically evaluated reports from 11 published and 4 unpublished patients with CBS deficiency and from additional four cases of encephalopathy in association with elevated methionine.

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Routine diagnostic screening of inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) is currently performed by different targeted analyses of known biomarkers. This approach is time-consuming, targets a limited number of biomarkers and will not identify new biomarkers. Untargeted metabolomics generates a global metabolic phenotype and has the potential to overcome these issues.

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Tonsil-related complaints are very common among the adult population. Tonsillectomy under general anesthesia is currently the most performed surgical treatment in adults for such complaints. Unfortunately, tonsillectomy is an invasive treatment associated with a high complication rate and a long recovery time.

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