Risk of mortality among children, adolescents, and adults with autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and their first-degree relatives: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are childhood onset neurodevelopmental disorders that may persist into adulthood. ASD and ADHD tend to run in families and may have a significant negative impact on the health and longevity of those with the disorder and their relatives. The aim of this study will be to analyze the risk of mortality among children, adolescents, and adults with ASD or ADHD and their first-degree relatives.

Comparative safety of antiepileptic drugs for neurological development in children exposed during pregnancy and breast feeding: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Objectives: Compare the safety of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) on neurodevelopment of infants/children exposed in utero or during breast feeding.

Design And Setting: Systematic review and Bayesian random-effects network meta-analysis (NMA). MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched until 27 April 2017.

Aripiprazole Lauroxil Compared with Paliperidone Palmitate in Patients with Schizophrenia: An Indirect Treatment Comparison.

Background: Aripiprazole lauroxil (AL) is a long-acting injectable atypical antipsychotic recently approved for treatment of schizophrenia on the basis of a large-scale trial of two doses of AL versus placebo. There are no direct-comparison studies with paliperidone palmitate (PP; long-acting antipsychotic used most often in acute settings) for the acute psychotic episode.

Objectives: To indirectly compare efficacy and safety of the pivotal AL study with all PP studies meeting indirect comparison criteria.

Anorexia nervosa and cancer: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

Background: Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a severe restriction of caloric intake, low body weight, fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat, and disturbance of body image. Pathogenesis of the disorder may include genetic predisposition, hormonal changes and a combination of environmental, psychosocial, and cultural factors. Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide.

The Importance of Considering Differences in Study Design in Network Meta-analysis: An Application Using Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor Drugs for Ulcerative Colitis.

Background And Aims: Adaptive trial designs present a methodological challenge when performing network meta-analysis (NMA), as data from such adaptive trial designs differ from conventional parallel design randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We aim to illustrate the importance of considering study design when conducting an NMA.

Methods: Three NMAs comparing anti-tumor necrosis factor drugs for ulcerative colitis were compared and the analyses replicated using Bayesian NMA.

A Systematic Review of Alpha-2 Agonists for Sedation in Mechanically Ventilated Neurocritical Care Patients.

The use of sedative medications is commonplace in intensive care units (ICUs) and an invaluable clinical tool for the intensive care physician. Sedation for critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients provides an opportunity to reduce anxiety, discomfort as well as ventilator intolerance and dyssynchrony. Alpha-2 agonists in particular have become increasingly popular for use in the neurocritical care population due to their proposed effectiveness in facilitating examinations and procedures as well as reducing the need for adjunctive agents.

Comparative safety of anti-epileptic drugs during pregnancy: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of congenital malformations and prenatal outcomes.

Background: Pregnant women with epilepsy frequently experience seizures related to pregnancy complications and are often prescribed anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) to manage their symptoms. However, less is known about the comparative safety of AED exposure in utero. We aimed to compare the risk of congenital malformations (CMs) and prenatal outcomes of AEDs in infants/children who were exposed to AEDs in utero through a systematic review and Bayesian random-effects network meta-analysis.

Efficacy and completion rates of rifapentine and isoniazid (3HP) compared to other treatment regimens for latent tuberculosis infection: a systematic review with network meta-analyses.

Background: We conducted a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) to examine the efficacy and completion rates of treatments for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). While a previous review found newer, short-duration regimens to be effective, several included studies did not confirm LTBI, and analyses did not account for variable follow-up or assess completion.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL, PubMed, and additional sources to identify RCTs in patients with confirmed LTBI that involved a regimen of interest and reported on efficacy or completion.

Evaluation of a direct motion estimation/correction method in respiratory-gated PET/MRI with motion-adjusted attenuation.

Purpose: Respiratory motion compensation in PET/CT and PET/MRI is essential as motion is a source of image degradation (motion blur, attenuation artifacts). In previous work, we developed a direct method for joint image reconstruction/motion estimation (JRM) for attenuation-corrected (AC) respiratory-gated PET, which uses a single attenuation-map (μ-map). This approach was successfully implemented for respiratory-gated PET/CT, but since it relied on an accurate μ-map for motion estimation, the question of its applicability in PET/MRI is open.

The Safety and Efficacy of Lysine Analogues in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Lysine analogues are effective agents used for the reduction of blood loss and transfusion. However, the safety of lysine analogues in cancer patients remains in question due to a potential risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). The objective of our review is to investigate safety and efficacy of lysine analogue administration in the patients with cancer.

Reporting guidance considerations from a statistical perspective: overview of tools to enhance the rigour of reporting of randomised trials and systematic reviews.

Objective: Research waste has received considerable attention from the biomedical community. One noteworthy contributor is incomplete reporting in research publications. When detailing statistical methods and results, ensuring analytic methods and findings are completely documented improves transparency.

Sign determination methods for the respiratory signal in data-driven PET gating.

Patient respiratory motion during PET image acquisition leads to blurring in the reconstructed images and may cause significant artifacts, resulting in decreased lesion detectability, inaccurate standard uptake value calculation and incorrect treatment planning in radiation therapy. To reduce these effects data can be regrouped into (nearly) 'motion-free' gates prior to reconstruction by selecting the events with respect to the breathing phase. This gating procedure therefore needs a respiratory signal: on current scanners it is obtained from an external device, whereas with data driven (DD) methods it can be directly obtained from the raw PET data.

Selection bias in the reported performances of AD classification pipelines.

The last decade has seen a great proliferation of supervised learning pipelines for individual diagnosis and prognosis in Alzheimer's disease. As more pipelines are developed and evaluated in the search for greater performance, only those results that are relatively impressive will be selected for publication. We present an empirical study to evaluate the potential for optimistic bias in classification performance results as a result of this selection.

Predatory Invitations from Journals: More Than Just a Nuisance?

Physicians and academic researchers are frequently targeted with spam invitations to submit manuscripts to predatory journals. This study was conducted to understand the nature and characteristics of these invitations. All spam e-mails received by an academic medical oncologist over a 3-month period were collected and categorized.

Enhancing accrual to chemotherapy trials for patients with early stage triple-negative breast cancer: a survey of physicians and patients.

Purpose: The optimal chemotherapy regimen for patients with early stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains unknown. The purpose of the study is to survey physicians and breast cancer patients about preferred chemotherapy regimens for early stage TNBC and clinical trial strategies.

Methods: A standardised online questionnaire was developed and circulated to medical oncologists known to treat breast cancer.

Therapies for bruxism: a systematic review and network meta-analysis (protocol).

Background: Bruxism is a sleep disorder characterized by grinding and clenching of the teeth that may be related to irreversible tooth injuries. It is a prevalent condition occurring in up to 31% of adults. However, there is no definitive answer as to which of the many currently available treatments (including drug therapy, intramuscular injections, physiotherapy, biofeedback, kinesiotherapy, use of intraoral devices, or psychological therapy) is the best for the clinical management of the different manifestations of bruxism.

Quantification of Lung PET Images: Challenges and Opportunities.

Millions of people are affected by respiratory diseases, leading to a significant health burden globally. Because of the current insufficient knowledge of the underlying mechanisms that lead to the development and progression of respiratory diseases, treatment options remain limited. To overcome this limitation and understand the associated molecular changes, noninvasive imaging techniques such as PET and SPECT have been explored for biomarker development, with F-FDG PET imaging being the most studied.

Characterization of prompt gamma-ray emission with respect to the Bragg peak for proton beam range verification: A Monte Carlo study.

In this paper we report a Geant4 simulation study to investigate the characteristic prompt gamma (PG) emission in a water phantom for real-time monitoring of the Bragg peak (BP) during proton beam irradiation. The PG production, emission spatial correlation with the BP, and position preference for detection with respect to the BP have been quantified in different PG energy windows as a function of proton pencil-beam energy from 100 to 200MeV. The PG response to small BP shifts was evaluated using a 2cm-thick slab with different human body materials embedded in a water phantom.

Development of clinical simultaneous SPECT/MRI.

There is increasing clinical use of combined positron emission tomography and MRI, but to date there has been no clinical system developed capable of simultaneous single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and MRI. There has been development of preclinical systems, but there are several challenges faced by researchers who are developing a clinical prototype including the need for the system to be compact and stationary with MRI-compatible components. The limited work in this area is described with specific reference to the Integrated SPECT/MRI for Enhanced stratification in Radio-chemo Therapy (INSERT) project, which is at an advanced stage of developing a clinical prototype.