Urinary sodium analysis: The key to effective diuretic titration? European Journal of Heart Failure expert consensus document.

In patients with heart failure, neurohumoral activation leads to increased renal sodium avidity across the entire renal tubules, resulting in a positive sodium and water balance, leading to decompensated heart failure requiring intravenous diuretics. As the dose of diuretic therapy required to achieve euvolaemia is difficult to estimate due to considerable intra- and interindividual differences, the European Society of Cardiology recommends assessment of the diuretic response within hours either via evaluation of the urinary sodium concentration or via urinary volume after initial diuretic administration. All diuretic agents enhance sodium excretion to a different extent depending on their side of action across the renal tubules, and renal adaptation mechanisms due to neurohumoral stimulation.

Brain areas for reversible symbolic reference, a potential singularity of the human brain.

The emergence of symbolic thinking has been proposed as a dominant cognitive criterion to distinguish humans from other primates during hominisation. Although the proper definition of a symbol has been the subject of much debate, one of its simplest features is bidirectional attachment: the content is accessible from the symbol, and vice versa. Behavioural observations scattered over the past four decades suggest that this criterion might not be met in non-human primates, as they fail to generalise an association learned in one temporal order (A to B) to the reverse order (B to A).

High expression level of ERBB2 and efficacy of trastuzumab deruxtecan in desmoplastic small round cell tumour: a monocentric case series report.

Background: Desmoplastic small round cell tumours (DSRCTs) represent an ultra-rare subtype of soft tissue sarcoma characterized by a recurrent EWSR1::WT1 oncogenic translocation. Considered as an extremely aggressive cancer, the prognosis remains poor with a median overall survival not exceeding 24-36 months and a 5-year survival <10%.

Patients And Methods: We analysed ERBB2/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression levels in a series of 13 DSRCT patients, using whole-exome RNA sequencing on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples from a local biopathological database.

Determinants of 5-year survival in patients with advanced NSCLC with PD-L1≥50% treated with first-line pembrolizumab outside of clinical trials: results from the Pembro-real 5Y global registry.

Background: Pembrolizumab monotherapy is an established front-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) tumor proportion score (TPS)≥50%. However, real-world data on its long-term efficacy remains sparse.

Methods: This study assessed 5-year outcomes of first-line pembrolizumab monotherapy in a large, multicenter, real-world cohort of patients with advanced NSCLC and PD-L1 TPS≥50%, referred to as Pembro-real 5Y.

Intestinal neutrophil extracellular traps promote gut barrier damage exacerbating endotoxaemia, systemic inflammation and progression of diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetes.

Aims/hypothesis: Within the small intestine, neutrophils play an integral role in preventing bacterial infection. Upon interaction with bacteria or bacteria-derived antigens, neutrophils initiate a multi-staged response of which the terminal stage is NETosis, formation of protease-decorated nuclear DNA into extracellular traps. NETosis has a great propensity to elicit ocular damage and has been associated with diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular oedema (DME) progression.