Background MRI plays a crucial role in restaging locally advanced rectal cancer treated with total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT); however, prospective studies have not evaluated its ability to accurately select patients for nonoperative management. Purpose To evaluate the ability of restaging MRI to predict oncologic outcomes and identify imaging features associated with residual disease (RD) after TNT. Materials and Methods This was a secondary analysis of the Organ Preservation in Rectal Adenocarcinoma (OPRA) trial, which randomized participants from April 2014 to March 2020 with stages II or III rectal adenocarcinoma to undergo either induction or consolidation TNT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol
August 2024
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) and sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are guideline-recommended therapies for the management of type 2 diabetes (T2D), atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease. We previously observed in people living with T2D and coronary artery disease that circulating vascular regenerative (VR) progenitor cell content increased following 6-mo use of the SGLT2 inhibitor empagliflozin. In this post hoc subanalysis of the ORIGINS-RCE CardioLink-13 study (ClinicalTrials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Opin Cardiol
September 2024
Purpose Of Review: We aim to provide a comprehensive examination of the literature linking elevated rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in individuals of South Asian ethnicity with the severity of circulating vascular regenerative cell exhaustion.
Recent Findings: Recent findings have demonstrated reduced bioavailability of pro-vascular progenitor cell subsets in individuals with T2D and obesity. Depletion of vascular regenerative cells in the bone marrow - coupled with decreased mobilization into circulation - can negatively impact the capacity for vascular repair and exacerbate CVD risk.
Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol
May 2024
Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is a chronic condition that often copresents with type 2 diabetes and obesity. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) are incretin mimetics endorsed by major professional societies for improving glycemic status and reducing atherosclerotic risk in people living with type 2 diabetes. Although the cardioprotective efficacy of GLP-1RAs and their relationship with traditional risk factors are well established, there is a paucity of publications that have summarized the potentially direct mechanisms through which GLP-1RAs mitigate atherosclerosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIschaemic cardiovascular diseases, including peripheral and coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke, remain major comorbidities for individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity. During cardiometabolic chronic disease (CMCD), hyperglycaemia and excess adiposity elevate oxidative stress and promote endothelial damage, alongside an imbalance in circulating pro-vascular progenitor cells that mediate vascular repair. Individuals with CMCD demonstrate pro-vascular 'regenerative cell exhaustion' (RCE) characterized by excess pro-inflammatory granulocyte precursor mobilization into the circulation, monocyte polarization towards pro-inflammatory vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This exploratory sub-analysis of the EMPA-HEART CardioLink-6 trial examined whether the previously reported benefit of the sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor empagliflozin on left ventricular (LV) mass (LVM) regression differs between individuals of South Asian and non-South Asian ethnicity.
Methods: EMPA-HEART CardioLink-6 was a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial that randomised 97 individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and coronary artery disease (CAD) to either empagliflozin 10 mg daily or placebo for 6 months. LV parameters and function were assessed using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.
Studying spatiotemporal water quality characteristics and their correlation with land use/land cover (LULC) patterns is essential for discerning the origins of various pollution sources and for informing strategic land use planning, which, in turn, requires a comprehensive analysis of spatiotemporal water quality data to comprehend how surface water quality evolves across different time and space dimensions. In this study, we compared catchment, riparian, and reach scale models to assess the effect of LULC on WQ. Using various multivariate techniques, a 14-year dataset of 20 WQ variables from 20 monitoring stations (67,200 observations) is studied along the Middle Ganga Basin (MGB).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExploding head syndrome (EHS) is an uncommon sleeping disorder that is described by patients as a loud noise occurring while transitioning into and out of sleep. It is not accompanied by a headache but causes a sense of fright. We describe the case of a 58-year-old female patient, presenting with a total of 11 events of EHS occurring at bedtime.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSodium glucose-cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have been reported to reduce cardiovascular events and heart failure in people with and without diabetes. These medications have been shown to counter regenerative cell exhaustion in the context of prevalent diabetes. This study sought to determine if empagliflozin attenuates regenerative cell exhaustion in people without diabetes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: This review will provide an overview of the recent literature linking the pathophysiology of cardiometabolic disease with the depletion and dysfunction of circulating vascular regenerative (VR) cell content. Moreover, we provide rationale for the use of VR cells as a biomarker for cardiovascular risk and the use of pharmacological agents to improve VR cell content.
Recent Findings: Recent studies demonstrate the potential of VR cells as a biomarker of cardiovascular risk and as a therapeutic target.
species has become a leading cause of nosocomial infections in recent years. The aim of the study was to establish the usefulness of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) for the identification of species with respect to conventional biochemical methods and MicroScan WalkAway 96 Plus system and to compare the antibiotic susceptibility test results Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method with MicroScan WalkAway 96 Plus automated identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing system. The study sample comprised 100 clinical isolates of species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiologic tests often contain rich imaging data not relevant to the clinical indication. Opportunistic screening refers to the practice of systematically leveraging these incidental imaging findings. Although opportunistic screening can apply to imaging modalities such as conventional radiography, US, and MRI, most attention to date has focused on body CT by using artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this study was to determine the lower limit of radiation dose required to measure visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) volumes when a fat quantification and noise reduction techniques (NRTs) are combined. For this purpose, we utilized CT colonography (CTC) images taken at low doses and manually segmented VAT and SAT fat volumes as ground truth. In order to derive the acceptable precision of the measurements needed to estimate the lower limit of radiation dose, we estimated the effect of different positioning during CT scanning on fat measurements using manually segmented VAT and SAT against normal dose.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors have been demonstrated to promote reverse cardiac remodeling in people with diabetes or heart failure. Although it has been theorized that sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors might afford similar benefits in people without diabetes or prevalent heart failure, this has not been evaluated. We sought to determine whether sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibition with empagliflozin leads to a decrease in left ventricular (LV) mass in people without type 2 diabetes or significant heart failure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Frailty, sarcopenia and malnutrition are powerful predictors of clinical outcomes that are not routinely measured in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The primary aim of this study was to investigate the association of sarcopenia, determined by the psoas muscle index (PMI) with overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced NSCLC treated with concurrent immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) and chemotherapy (CTX).
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data from a cohort of patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC who were treated between 2015 and 2021 at the University of Virginia Medical Center.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
September 2022
Understanding the dynamics of water quality in any water body is vital for the sustainability of our water resources. Thus, investigating spatio-temporal changes of dominant water quality parameters (WQPs) in any study is indeed critical for proposing the appropriate treatment for the water bodies. Traditionally, concentrations of WQPs have been measured through intensive fieldwork.
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