Factors associated with poorer outcomes for posterior lumbar decompression and or/or discectomy: an exploratory analysis of administrative data.

Purpose: This study aimed to identify factors associated with poorer patient outcomes for lumbar decompression and/or discectomy (PLDD).

Methods: We extracted data from the Hospital Episodes Statistics database for the 5 years from 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2019. Patients undergoing an elective one- or two-level PLDD aged ≥ 17 years and without evidence of revision surgery during the index stay were included.

Data quality and autism: Issues and potential impacts.

Introduction: Large healthcare datasets can provide insight that has the potential to improve outcomes for patients. However, it is important to understand the strengths and limitations of such datasets so that the insights they provide are accurate and useful. The aim of this study was to identify data inconsistencies within the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) dataset for autistic patients and assess potential biases introduced through these inconsistencies and their impact on patient outcomes.

Frailty, Comorbidity, and Associations With In-Hospital Mortality in Older COVID-19 Patients: Exploratory Study of Administrative Data.

Background: Older adults have worse outcomes following hospitalization with COVID-19, but within this group there is substantial variation. Although frailty and comorbidity are key determinants of mortality, it is less clear which specific manifestations of frailty and comorbidity are associated with the worst outcomes.

Objective: We aimed to identify the key comorbidities and domains of frailty that were associated with in-hospital mortality in older patients with COVID-19 using models developed for machine learning algorithms.

Data consistency in the English Hospital Episodes Statistics database.

Background: To gain maximum insight from large administrative healthcare datasets it is important to understand their data quality. Although a gold standard against which to assess criterion validity rarely exists for such datasets, internal consistency can be evaluated. We aimed to identify inconsistencies in the recording of mandatory International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, tenth revision (ICD-10) codes within the Hospital Episodes Statistics dataset in England.

Early postoperative epidermal growth factor receptor inhibition: safety and effectiveness in inhibiting microscopic residual of oral squamous cell carcinoma in vivo.

Background: The local-regional failure of advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) after surgery results from the regrowth of residual tumor cells that may be stimulated by epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligands during the wound healing process.

Methods: The level of EGFR ligands in human drain fluids (DFs) from OSCC resection and remote flap donor site were determined. A mouse model of microscopic residual OSCC was established and treated with cetuximab to measure tumor growth, survival, and cervical lymph node metastases.

Trans-complementation of an NS2 defect in a late step in hepatitis C virus (HCV) particle assembly and maturation.

Recent studies using cell culture infection systems that recapitulate the entire life cycle of hepatitis C virus (HCV) indicate that several nonstructural viral proteins, including NS2, NS3, and NS5A, are involved in the process of viral assembly and release. Other recent work suggests that Ser-168 of NS2 is a target of CK2 kinase-mediated phosphorylation, and that this controls the stability of the genotype 1a NS2 protein. Here, we show that Ser-168 is a critical determinant in the production of infectious virus particles.

NS3 helicase domains involved in infectious intracellular hepatitis C virus particle assembly.

A mutation within subdomain 1 of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3 helicase (NS3-Q221L) (M. Yi, Y. Ma, J.

Compensatory mutations in E1, p7, NS2, and NS3 enhance yields of cell culture-infectious intergenotypic chimeric hepatitis C virus.

There is little understanding of mechanisms underlying the assembly and release of infectious hepatitis C virus (HCV) from cultured cells. Cells transfected with synthetic genomic RNA from a unique genotype 2a virus (JFH1) produce high titers of virus, while virus yields are much lower with a prototype genotype 1a RNA containing multiple cell culture-adaptive mutations (H77S). To characterize the basis for this difference in infectious particle production, we constructed chimeric genomes encoding the structural proteins of H77S within the background of JFH1.