A Comparison of Precision and Safety using Three Recognized Ultrasound-Guided Approaches to Cervical Medial Branch Blocks: A Cadaver Study.

Background: Ultrasound (US) guidance is widely used for needle positioning for cervical medial branch blocks (CMBB) and radiofrequency ablation, however, limited research is available comparing different approaches.

Objective: We aimed to assess the accuracy and safety of 3 different US-guided approaches for CMBB.

Study Design: A cadaveric study divided into ultrasound-guided needle placement and fluoroscopy evaluation stages.

Clinical Informatics Approaches to Understand and Address Cancer Disparities.

Objectives: Disparities in cancer incidence and outcomes across race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and geography are well-documented, but their etiologies are often poorly understood and multifactorial. Clinical informatics can provide tools to better understand and address these disparities by enabling high-throughput analysis of multiple types of data. Here, we review recent efforts in clinical informatics to study and measure disparities in cancer.

NCOA4-Mediated Ferritinophagy Is a Pancreatic Cancer Dependency via Maintenance of Iron Bioavailability for Iron-Sulfur Cluster Proteins.

Unlabelled: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) depend on autophagy for survival; however, the metabolic substrates that autophagy provides to drive PDAC progression are unclear. Ferritin, the cellular iron storage complex, is targeted for lysosomal degradation (ferritinophagy) by the selective autophagy adaptor NCOA4, resulting in release of iron for cellular utilization. Using patient-derived and murine models of PDAC, we demonstrate that ferritinophagy is upregulated in PDAC to sustain iron availability, thereby promoting tumor progression.

Long-Term Decrease in Coloration: A Consequence of Climate Change?

AbstractClimate change has been shown to affect fitness-related traits in a wide range of taxa; for instance, warming leads to phenological advancements in many plant and animal species. The influence of climate change on social and secondary sexual traits, which are associated with fitness because of their role as quality signals, is, however, unknown. Here, we use more than 5,800 observations collected on two Mediterranean blue tit subspecies ( and ) to explore whether blue crown and yellow breast patch colorations have changed over the past 15 years.

[Clinic predictive model and validation of anaerobic bacteremias (including polymicrobial bacteremias)].

Introduction: Anaerobic bacteremias are uncommon. There is no agreement on their clinical predictability and the usefulness of anaerobic blood cultures. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a model for the prediction of anaerobic bacteremias.

Factor XIII Val34Leu polymorphism modulates the prothrombotic and inflammatory state associated with atrial fibrillation.

Unlabelled: Atrial fibrillation (AF) has been shown to confer a prothrombotic or hypercoagulable state, which could be related to inflammation. Factor XIII (FXIII) catalyses the cross-linking of fibrin monomers, increasing clot resistance; specifically, a common polymorphism, Val34Leu, in the FXIII-A subunit gene has been associated with more rapid FXIII activation. We hypothesised a role for this polymorphism in the prothrombotic state and inflammation in AF, and tested this hypothesis by measurement of indices of coagulation (tissue factor (TF) and fibrinogen), inflammation (interleukin-6 (IL6)) and platelet activation (soluble P selectin (sPsel)).