Publications by authors named "Jad Saab"

Background: While scientific knowledge of post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) is growing, there remains significant uncertainty in the definition of the disease, its expected clinical course, and its impact on daily functioning. Social media platforms can generate valuable insights into patient-reported health outcomes as the content is produced at high resolution by patients and caregivers, representing experiences that may be unavailable to most clinicians.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to determine the validity and effectiveness of advanced natural language processing approaches built to derive insight into PCC-related patient-reported health outcomes from social media platforms Twitter and Reddit.

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Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) can bias the outcome of Ag presentation to responsive T cells in vitro away from Th1-type immunity and toward the Th2 and Th17 poles through actions on endothelial cells (ECs). To test the in vivo significance of this observation, we engineered a mouse lacking functional CGRP receptors on ECs (EC receptor activity modifying protein 1 [RAMP1] knockout mice). On percutaneous immunization to 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene, stimulated CD4 T cells from draining lymph nodes showed significantly reduced IL-17A expression with significantly increased IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-22 expression at the protein and mRNA levels compared with control mice.

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Objective: Individuals with neurological disease or injury such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, spinal cord injury or stroke may become tetraplegic, unable to speak or even locked-in. For people with these conditions, current assistive technologies are often ineffective. Brain-computer interfaces are being developed to enhance independence and restore communication in the absence of physical movement.

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Endocrine mucin-producing sweat gland carcinoma is a low-grade eyelid tumor. Small biopsies and insensitive immunohistochemistry predispose to misdiagnosis. We aimed to identify clarifying immunohistochemical markers, molecular markers, or both.

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Intracortical brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs) allow people with paralysis to directly control assistive devices using neural activity associated with the intent to move. Realizing the full potential of iBCIs critically depends on continued progress in understanding how different cortical areas contribute to movement control. Here we present the first comparison between neuronal ensemble recordings from the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and precentral gyrus (PCG) of a person with tetraplegia using an iBCI.

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BCOR has been recognized as a recurrently altered gene in a subset of pediatric tumors of the central nervous system (CNS). Here, we describe a novel BCOR-CREBBP fusion event in a case of pediatric infiltrating astrocytoma and further probe the frequency of related fusion events in CNS tumors. We analyzed biopsy samples taken from a 15-year-old male with an aggressive, unresectable and multifocal infiltrating astrocytoma.

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The offline "replay" of neural firing patterns underlying waking experience, previously observed in non-human animals, is thought to be a mechanism for memory consolidation. Here, we test for replay in the human brain by recording spiking activity from the motor cortex of two participants who had intracortical microelectrode arrays placed chronically as part of a brain-computer interface pilot clinical trial. Participants took a nap before and after playing a neurally controlled sequence-copying game that consists of many repetitions of one "repeated" sequence sparsely interleaved with varying "control" sequences.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A study examined ROCK2, a downstream marker of Rho kinase activation, in biopsy samples from autoimmune diseases, revealing significantly higher ROCK2 levels in conditions like lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, and scleroderma compared to normal and unrelated inflammatory skin.
  • * The findings suggest that Rho kinase is a major contributor to autoimmune diseases and offer insights into targeting the Rho-kinase pathway for potential biologic therapies in treating these conditions.
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Decoders optimized offline to reconstruct intended movements from neural recordings sometimes fail to achieve optimal performance online when they are used in closed-loop as part of an intracortical brain-computer interface (iBCI). This is because typical decoder calibration routines do not model the emergent interactions between the decoder, the user, and the task parameters (e.g.

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Intracortical brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can enable individuals to control effectors, such as a computer cursor, by directly decoding the user's movement intentions from action potentials and local field potentials (LFPs) recorded within the motor cortex. However, the accuracy and complexity of effector control achieved with such "biomimetic" BCIs will depend on the degree to which the intended movements used to elicit control modulate the neural activity. In particular, channels that do not record distinguishable action potentials and only record LFP modulations may be of limited use for BCI control.

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General-purpose computers have become ubiquitous and important for everyday life, but they are difficult for people with paralysis to use. Specialized software and personalized input devices can improve access, but often provide only limited functionality. In this study, three research participants with tetraplegia who had multielectrode arrays implanted in motor cortex as part of the BrainGate2 clinical trial used an intracortical brain-computer interface (iBCI) to control an unmodified commercial tablet computer.

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Objective: Recent reports indicate that making better assumptions about the user's intended movement can improve the accuracy of decoder calibration for intracortical brain-computer interfaces. Several methods now exist for estimating user intent, including an optimal feedback control model, a piecewise-linear feedback control model, ReFIT, and other heuristics. Which of these methods yields the best decoding performance?

Methods: Using data from the BrainGate2 pilot clinical trial, we measured how a steady-state velocity Kalman filter decoder was affected by the choice of intention estimation method.

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Restoring communication for people with locked-in syndrome remains a challenging clinical problem without a reliable solution. Recent studies have shown that people with paralysis can use brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) based on intracortical spiking activity to efficiently type messages. However, due to neuronal signal instability, most intracortical BCIs have required frequent calibration and continuous assistance of skilled engineers to maintain performance.

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Objective: Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can enable individuals with tetraplegia to communicate and control external devices. Though much progress has been made in improving the speed and robustness of neural control provided by intracortical BCIs, little research has been devoted to minimizing the amount of time spent on decoder calibration.

Approach: We investigated the amount of time users needed to calibrate decoders and achieve performance saturation using two markedly different decoding algorithms: the steady-state Kalman filter, and a novel technique using Gaussian process regression (GP-DKF).

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Background: Lymphocytic thrombophilic arteritis is a recently recognized subcuticular larger vessel vasculitis characterized by striking vascular luminal thrombosis.

Methods: The clinical features, histopathology and phenotypic profile of ten patients with lymphocytic thrombophilic arteritis were explored in an attempt to better define the entity from a clinical and pathophysiologic perspective.

Results: The patients were all female (mean age of 43) presenting with generally asymptomatic lower and upper extremity hyperpigmented macules.

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Article Synopsis
  • Melanoma is a serious skin cancer treated by removing the primary tumor and potentially doing a sentinel lymph node biopsy to check for metastasis, where identifying cancerous cells in lymph nodes is crucial for treatment decisions.
  • The study investigates the effectiveness of two metabolic proteins, fatty acid synthase (FASN) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), in distinguishing between metastatic melanoma and benign nodal nevi in patients.
  • Results showed that all metastatic melanoma samples had significant staining for FASN and ACC, indicating their potential as biomarkers for identifying cancerous cells in sentinel lymph nodes.*
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Distinguishing synchronous and metachronous primary lung adenocarcinomas from adenocarcinomas with intrapulmonary metastasis is essential for optimal patient management. In this study, multiple lung adenocarcinomas occurring in the same patient were evaluated using comprehensive histopathologic evaluation supplemented with molecular analysis. The cohort included 18 patients with a total of 52 lung adenocarcinomas.

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BACKGROUND The reciprocal translocation t(1;22)(p13;q13) involving the RBM15 and MKL1 genes is an uncommon abnormality that occurs in a subset of acute myeloid leukemia with megakaryocytic differentiation (AMKL). Variant translocations have been infrequently described in this subtype of leukemia. CASE REPORT We describe the case of a 3-month-old girl who presented with progressive abdominal distension, vomiting, and fever.

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Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) aim to restore independence to people with severe motor disabilities by allowing control of acursor on a computer screen or other effectors with neural activity. However, physiological and/or recording-related nonstationarities in neural signals can limit long-term decoding stability, and it would be tedious for users to pause use of the BCI whenever neural control degrades to perform decoder recalibration routines. We recently demonstrated that a kinematic decoder (i.

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The authors address the entity of cutaneous lymphadenoma. Although considered benign, cutaneous lymphadenoma can be easily misdiagnosed as basal cell carcinoma because of its close clinical and histological resemblance. This entity is rare and controversial both in terms of its histogenesis and the various diagnostic terms assigned to it throughout the literature.

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Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have the potential to restore communication for people with tetraplegia and anarthria by translating neural activity into control signals for assistive communication devices. While previous pre-clinical and clinical studies have demonstrated promising proofs-of-concept (Serruya et al., 2002; Simeral et al.

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Background: Pericardial effusions can cause considerable morbidity and potentially may lead to mortality. Malignant pericardial effusions are uncommon, and data on malignancies encountered in pericardial effusion cytology specimens are limited.

Methods: Relevant records of all pericardial effusions from January 2008 to September 2014 were examined and compared with pericardial biopsy results when performed.

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A 57-year-old woman presented with a 3-year history of a progressive firm plaque on the right cheek. Skin biopsies revealed a bland, storiform, spindle-cell proliferation involving the deep dermis and subcutaneous fat. By immunohistochemistry, the tumor cells were diffusely positive for CD34 and caldesmon with multifocal reactivity for epithelial membrane antigen and focal, weak staining for smooth muscle actin.

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