Socioeconomic and Demographic Disparities in Keratoconus Treatment.

Purpose: To investigate healthcare disparities associated with keratoconus (KCN) patients receiving treatment (corneal cross-linking [CXL] and keratoplasty), as well as comorbidities associated with KCN.

Design: Retrospective clinical cohort study.

Methods: A total of 3224 patients from the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System (UI-Health) database from 2020 to 2024 were examined, including 1612 patients with an International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision diagnosis of KCN, and 1612 ophthalmology patients as a control group.

Brain-phenotype predictions of language and executive function can survive across diverse real-world data: Dataset shifts in developmental populations.

Predictive modeling potentially increases the reproducibility and generalizability of neuroimaging brain-phenotype associations. Yet, the evaluation of a model in another dataset is underutilized. Among studies that undertake external validation, there is a notable lack of attention to generalization across dataset-specific idiosyncrasies (i.

Target specification and therapeutic potential of extracellular vesicles for regulating corneal angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, and nerve repair.

Extracellular vesicles, including exosomes, are small extracellular vesicles that range in size from 30 nm to 10 μm in diameter and have specific membrane markers. They are naturally secreted and are present in various bodily fluids, including blood, urine, and saliva, and through the variety of their internal cargo, they contribute to both normal physiological and pathological processes. These processes include immune modulation, neuronal synapse formation, cell differentiation, cancer metastasis, angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, progression of infectious disease, and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Comparison of analgesic efficacy of continuous perineural catheter, liposomal bupivacaine, and dexamethasone as an adjuvant for interscalene block in total shoulder arthroplasty: a triple-blinded randomized controlled trial.

Background: Interscalene catheters (ISC) are considered as the gold standard for perioperative pain control after total shoulder arthroplasty. Liposomal bupivacaine (LB) for interscalene blocks (ISBs) and the addition of dexamethasone to ISBs have both presented as additional options for extended analgesia. We aimed to compare the efficacy of LB to a single-shot ISB (SISB) with added dexamethasone to an ISC.

Power and reproducibility in the external validation of brain-phenotype predictions.

Brain-phenotype predictive models seek to identify reproducible and generalizable brain-phenotype associations. External validation, or the evaluation of a model in external datasets, is the gold standard in evaluating the generalizability of models in neuroimaging. Unlike typical studies, external validation involves two sample sizes: the training and the external sample sizes.