Prenatal Valproic Acid Induces Autistic-Like Behaviors in Rats via Dopaminergic Modulation in Nigrostriatal and Mesocorticolimbic Pathways.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disorder characterized by several behavioral impairments, especially in socialization, communication, and the occurrence of stereotyped behaviors. In rats, prenatal exposure to valproic acid (VPA) induces autistic-like behaviors. Previous studies by our group have suggested that the autistic-like phenotype is possibly related to dopaminergic system modulation because tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression was affected.

[Emergency hand surgery in the course of time : Clinical and economic aspects of inpatient and outpatient cases at a university hospital in the last decade].

Background: Hand surgery departments nowadays face the challenge of operating profitably, training new specialists, managing increasing case numbers and implementing the required shift towards outpatient care in clinical practice.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the demographic and economic indicators of a university hospital and to examine the development of inpatient and outpatient case numbers over the past decade.

Material And Methods: A retrospective data analysis was carried out for patients treated for hand injuries in the period from 2013 to 2023.

Semi-Automatic Export of Electrophysiological Metadata to NFDI4Health Local Data Hubs: Use Case of Microneurography odML-Tables - A Technical Case Report.

Introduction: The Local Data Hub (LDH) is a platform for FAIR sharing of medical research (meta-)data. In order to promote the usage of LDH in different research communities, it is important to understand the domain-specific needs, solutions currently used for data organization and provide support for seamless uploads to a LDH. In this work, we analyze the use case of microneurography, which is an electrophysiological technique for analyzing neural activity.

[The relationship between obesity, social isolation, and mental health-results from the LIFE adult study].

Background: Population-based studies on the relationship between social isolation and obesity, which also include younger adults, are still lacking in Germany. The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of social isolation in people with and without obesity. In addition, socially isolated people with and without obesity are examined with regard to socio-demographic and socio-economic factors as well as with regard to depressive symptoms.

Quality Assessment of Brain MRI Defacing Using Machine Learning.

Defacing of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans is a crucial process in medical imaging research aimed at preserving patient privacy while maintaining data integrity. However, existing defacing algorithms are prone to errors, potentially compromising patient anonymity. This paper investigates the feasibility and efficacy of automated quality assessment for defaced brain MRIs using machine learning (ML).

Harmonizing Microneurography Metadata with Local Data Hubs: A Concept.

This work aims to improve FAIR-ness of the microneurography research by integrating the local (meta)data to existing research data infrastructures. In the previous work, we developed an odML based solution for local metadata storage of microneurography data. However, this solution is limited to a narrow community.

A study on interoperability between two Personal Health Train infrastructures in leukodystrophy data analysis.

The development of platforms for distributed analytics has been driven by a growing need to comply with various governance-related or legal constraints. Among these platforms, the so-called Personal Health Train (PHT) is one representative that has emerged over the recent years. However, in projects that require data from sites featuring different PHT infrastructures, institutions are facing challenges emerging from the combination of multiple PHT ecosystems, including data governance, regulatory compliance, or the modification of existing workflows.

Ethical regulation of biomedical research in Brazil: a quality improvement initiative.

Background: Q-CEP (Qualificação dos Comitês de Ética em Pesquisa que compõem o Sistema CEP/Conep) is a nationwide project resulting from a partnership between the Brazilian National Research Ethics Commission (Conep), the Ministry of Health and Hospital Moinhos de Vento (HMV). It was developed to consolidate policy for ethical review of research with human beings in all members of the CEP/Conep System, Brazil's national system of institutional review boards. The aim of this study was therefore to report on the experience and results of the Q-CEP project.

Salzburg Intensive Care database (SICdb): a detailed exploration and comparative analysis with MIMIC-IV.

The utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is on the rise, demanding increased accessibility to (public) medical data for benchmarking. The digitization of healthcare in recent years has facilitated medical data scientists' access to extensive hospital data, fostering AI-based research. A notable addition to this trend is the Salzburg Intensive Care database (SICdb), made publicly available in early 2023.

[Interoperability Working Group: core dataset and information systems for data integration and data exchange in the Medical Informatics Initiative].

The interoperability Working Group of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) is the platform for the coordination of overarching procedures, data structures, and interfaces between the data integration centers (DIC) of the university hospitals and national and international interoperability committees. The goal is the joint content-related and technical design of a distributed infrastructure for the secondary use of healthcare data that can be used via the Research Data Portal for Health. Important general conditions are data privacy and IT security for the use of health data in biomedical research.

[Development of competencies in the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII)-educational offers for a competent and secure handling of medical data].

In order to achieve the goals of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII), staff with skills in the field of medical informatics and data science are required. Each consortium has established training activities. Further, cross-consortium activities have emerged.

[Foundations for the scientific use of extensive health care data in Germany-results of the Data Sharing working group of the Medical Informatics Initiative].

Healthcare data are an important resource in applied medical research. They are available multicentrically. However, it remains a challenge to enable standardized data exchange processes between federal states and their individual laws and regulations.

Glucose tolerance and insulin resistance/sensitivity associate with retinal layer characteristics: the LIFE-Adult-Study.

Aims/hypothesis: As the prevalence of insulin resistance and glucose intolerance is increasing throughout the world, diabetes-induced eye diseases are a global health burden. We aim to identify distinct optical bands which are closely related to insulin and glucose metabolism, using non-invasive, high-resolution spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) in a large, population-based dataset.

Methods: The LIFE-Adult-Study randomly selected 10,000 participants from the population registry of Leipzig, Germany.

Does a therapeutical dose of ivermectin impairs testicular homeostasis of rats via excessive apoptosis?

Ivermectin is a medication used to treat parasite infestations in humans and in veterinary medicine. Previously we showed that therapeutical doses of ivermectin impaired spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis in adult rats. The present study was proposed to understand the pathophysiological mechanism that triggered these impairments induced by ivermectin.

Ivermectin prevents stress-induced testicular damage in juvenile rats.

Ivermectin is a popular antiparasitic drug used in veterinary and human medicine. Studies by our group have shown that therapeutic doses of ivermectin induce some brain and behavioral impairments, especially in the reproductive sphere. So far, the studies were focused in adulthood.

The different areas of chronic stress and food addiction: Results from the LIFE-Adult-Study.

There is an empirical association between stress and symptoms of food addiction (FA), but it is still not clear which domains of stress are the most relevant when it comes to FA, limiting the ability of researchers and practitioners to address problematic eating-related health outcomes. In order to address this gap in the literature, we analysed how different domains of chronic stress are related to FA. We used data from a subsample of the LIFE-Adult-Study (N = 1172), a German cohort study.

Automated detection of genetic relatedness from fundus photographs using Siamese Neural Networks.

Heritability of common eye diseases and ocular traits are relatively high. Here, we develop an automated algorithm to detect genetic relatedness from color fundus photographs (FPs). We estimated the degree of shared ancestry amongst individuals in the UK Biobank using KING software.

The dopaminergic D1 receptor modulates the hyperactivity of Bapa mutant mice.

The mutant bate-palmas ("claps"; symbol - bapa) mice induced by the mutagenic chemical ENU present motor incoordination and postural alterations. A previous study showed that bapa mice present increased motor/exploratory behaviors during the prepubertal period due to increased striatal tyrosine hydroxylase expression, suggesting striatal dopaminergic system hyperactivity. This study aimed to evaluate the involvement of striatal dopaminergic receptors in the hyperactivity of bapa mice.

Association of Systemic Medication Use with Glaucoma and Intraocular Pressure: The European Eye Epidemiology Consortium.

Purpose: To investigate the association of commonly used systemic medications with glaucoma and intraocular pressure (IOP) in the European population.

Design: Meta-analysis of 11 population-based cohort studies of the European Eye Epidemiology Consortium.

Participants: The glaucoma analyses included 143 240 participants and the IOP analyses included 47 177 participants.

Feasibility and repeatability of ocular biometry measured with IOLMaster 700 in a large population-based study.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility and repeatability of IOLMaster 700 biometry measurements in an adult population. Furthermore, to assess the value of the Quality Indicators (QIs) provided by the device.

Method: As part of the large population-based Leipzig Research Centre for Civilization Diseases (LIFE) Adult-Study, randomly selected participants from Leipzig, Germany were evaluated with the ZEISS IOLMaster 700.

Comprehensive automatic processing and analysis of adaptive optics flood illumination retinal images on healthy subjects.

This work presents a novel fully automated method for retinal analysis in images acquired with a flood illuminated adaptive optics retinal camera (AO-FIO). The proposed processing pipeline consists of several steps: First, we register single AO-FIO images in a montage image capturing a larger retinal area. The registration is performed by combination of phase correlation and the scale-invariant feature transform method.

Progressive tremor and motor impairment in seizure-prone mutant tremor mice are associated with neurotransmitter dysfunction.

Background: The tremor mutant mice present motor impairments comprised of whole-body tremors, ataxia, decreased exploratory behavior, and audiogenic seizures.

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the development of motor dysfunction in this mutant mouse and the relationships with cortical, striatal, and cerebellar levels of GABA, glutamate, glycine, dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT), noradrenaline (NOR), and its metabolites. The serum cytokines levels, myelin content, and the astrocytic expression of the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) investigated the possible influence of inflammation in motor dysfunction.