Effectiveness and Safety of Dose-Specific DOACs in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.

Dose adjustments of direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs) for atrial fibrillation are based on pivotal clinical trials assessing their effectiveness and safety in controlled settings. However, the appropriateness of these dosing strategies in real-world practice is uncertain. The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness and safety of dose-specific DOACs with those of warfarin.

Ultrasonic emulsification and aspiration for coral reef atherosclerosis as a novel alternative to transaortic endarterectomy and thoracic aorta-based bypass grafting.

Transaortic endarterectomy (TE) is an effective and durable method of restoring patency in the aorta afflicted with atherosclerotic disease, which most commonly affects the infrarenal aorta and common iliac artery. When the suprarenal aorta is involved, the disease is usually confined to the orifices of the visceral vessels without obstruction of the aortic lumen. In rare cases, dense, calcified, exophytic, and amorphous lesions causing severe luminal obstruction, termed coral reef atherosclerosis (CRA) of the suprarenal aorta, may occur.

Parameter-Tuned Pulsed Wave Photobiomodulation Enhances Stem Cells From Apical Papilla Differentiation: Evidence From Gene and Protein Analyses.

This study examines the effects of pulsed wave photobiomodulation (pwPBM) on the osteogenic differentiation of stem cells from the apical papilla (SCAP). Using 810 nm near-infrared (NIR) light with 300 Hz pulses and a 30% duty cycle, pwPBM was applied at a total energy density of 750 mJ/cm. Osteogenesis was evaluated through both in vitro and in vivo analyses.

Revisiting Age-Related Normative Hearing Levels in Korea.

Background: Hearing level reference values based on the results of recent audiometry have not been established for the general population of South Korea. This study aimed to evaluate the mean hearing levels of each age group and to measure the annual progression of hearing loss.

Methods: We used the database of the eighth and ninth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2020 to 2022, and included participants with normal tympanic membranes and without occupational noise exposure.

Magnitude of Potential Biases in COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Studies due to Differential Healthcare seeking following Home Testing: Implications for Test Negative Design Studies.

The test-negative design (TND) is widely used to estimate COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE). Biased estimates of VE may result from effects of at-home SARS-CoV-2 rapid diagnostic test (RDT) results on decisions to seek healthcare. To investigate magnitude of potential bias, we constructed decision trees with input probabilities obtained from longitudinal surveys of U.