Background: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) has been suggested to play paradoxical roles in patients with heart failure. The role of EAT in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients remains unclear. We aimed to assess the associations between the dynamic changes EAT and left ventricular reverse remodeling (LVRR) in DCM patients based on baseline and follow-up CMR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith an increasing focus on precision medicine in medical research, numerous studies have been conducted in recent years to clarify the relationship between treatment effects and patient characteristics. The treatment effects for patients with different characteristics are always heterogeneous, and therefore, various heterogeneous treatment effect machine learning estimation methods have been proposed owing to their flexibility and high estimation accuracy. However, most machine learning methods rely on black-box models, preventing direct interpretation of the relationship between patient characteristics and treatment effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle
December 2024
Background: Both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) manifest in cognitive impairment and gait disorders. The precise similarities and differences in gait characteristics and underlying neuroimaging mechanisms remain unclear.
Methods: A total of 399 participants were enrolled: 132 with probable AD, including 98 with mild cognitive impairment due to AD (AD-MCI) and 34 with AD dementia, and 185 with CSVD and 82 healthy controls.
Background: Although the prognosis of follicular lymphoma (FL) has improved, some patients experience early disease progression, including progression of disease within 24 months (POD24). Histological transformation is a critical event in FL. However, the heterogeneity of FL tumors makes it challenging to diagnose transformation accurately.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence and risk factors of lower extremity pain and/or numbness after laparoscopic colorectal surgery and robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy in the lithotomy position combined with the Trendelenburg position. The relationship between creatine kinase (CK) levels and lower extremity pain and/or numbness was also investigated.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed adult patients who underwent laparoscopic colorectal surgery and robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy in the lithotomy position combined with the Trendelenburg position between May 2015 and April 2020.
Background: Perineural spread (PNS) is associated with a poor prognosis in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (cSCCHN). Hence, investigating facilitators and barriers of early diagnosis and treatment of PNS in cSCCHN may improve outcomes.
Methods: Patients were recruited from an institutional database.
Objective: Reliable identification of high-risk older adults who are likely to develop sarcopenia is essential to implement targeted preventive measures and follow-up. However, no sarcopenia prediction model is currently available for community use. Our objective was to develop and validate a risk prediction model for calculating the 1-year absolute risk of developing sarcopenia in an aging population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProg Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry
August 2024
Background: Low folate intake and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T polymorphism have been suggested to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the synergistic effects and their impact on brain structure and perfusion remain unclear.
Methods: This study explored the effects of dietary and genetic deficiencies in folate metabolism on the volume of the hippocampal subregions, cerebral perfusion, and cognitive decline in 71 cognitively unimpaired (CU) individuals and 102 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD or AD.
Previous research has focused on static functional connectivity in gait disorders caused by cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD), neglecting dynamic functional connections and network attribution. This study aims to investigate alterations in dynamic functional network connectivity (dFNC) and topological organization variance in CSVD-related gait disorders. A total of 85 patients with CSVD, including 41 patients with CSVD and gait disorders (CSVD-GD), 44 patients with CSVD and non-gait disorders (CSVD-NGD), and 32 healthy controls (HC), were enrolled in this study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEfferocytosis, the process of engulfing and removing apoptotic cells, plays an essential role in preserving tissue health and averting undue inflammation. While macrophages are primarily known for this task, dendritic cells (DCs) also play a significant role. This review delves into the unique contributions of various DC subsets to efferocytosis, highlighting the distinctions in how DCs and macrophages recognize and handle apoptotic cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The prognostic value of left ventricular (LV) entropy in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is unclear.
Objectives: This study aimed to assess the prognostic value of LV entropy from T1 mapping in HCM.
Methods: A total of 748 participants with HCM, who underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), were consecutively enrolled.
We propose a novel framework based on the RuleFit method to estimate heterogeneous treatment effect in randomized clinical trials. The proposed method estimates a rule ensemble comprising a set of prognostic rules, a set of prescriptive rules, as well as the linear effects of the original predictor variables. The prescriptive rules provide an interpretable description of the heterogeneous treatment effect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImmune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is characterized by early platelet destruction and impaired platelet production. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection seems to contribute to the pathogenesis in certain ITP patients in Japan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The hippocampus consists of histologically and functionally distinct subfields, which shows differential vulnerabilities to Alzheimer's disease (AD)-associated pathological changes.
Objective: To investigate the atrophy patterns of the main hippocampal subfields in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD and the relationships among the hippocampal subfield volumes, plasma biomarkers and cognitive performance.
Methods: This cross-sectional study included 119 patients stratified into three categories: normal cognition (CN; N = 40), MCI (N = 39), and AD (N = 40).
Background: Sleep disorders are prevalent among patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the APOE ε4 genotype is a key genetic risk factor for sporadic AD. However, the combined effect of the genotype and sleep disorders on cognitive decline remains uncertain.
Methods: A total of 972 participants were drawn from the SILCODE cohort, comprising 655 without the ε4 allele (APOE-) and 317 with ε4 allele (APOE+).
Background: The impact of the coexistence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) on clinical profiles, myocardial fibrosis, and outcomes remain incompletely understood.
Method: A total of 1152 patients diagnosed with non-ischemic DCM were prospectively enrolled from June 2012 to October 2021 and categorized into T2DM and non-T2DM groups. Clinical characteristics, cardiac function, and myocardial fibrosis evaluated by CMR were compared between the two groups.
Background: The prognostic value of follow-up cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients is unclear. We aimed to investigate the prognostic value of cardiac function, structure, and tissue characteristics at mid-term CMR follow-up.
Methods: The study population was a prospectively enrolled cohort of DCM patients who underwent guideline-directed medical therapy with baseline and follow-up CMR, which included measurement of biventricular volume and ejection fraction, late gadolinium enhancement, native T1, native T2, and extracellular volume.