Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) can be diagnosed using various diagnostic modalities. The electrocardiogram (ECG) is a cost-effective and widely available diagnostic aid that provides functional information of the heart. However, its ability to classify and spatially localise CVD is limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigate the dynamics of the adaptive Kuramoto model with slow adaptation in the continuum limit, N→∞. This model is distinguished by dense multistability, where multiple states coexist for the same system parameters. The underlying cause of this multistability is that some oscillators can lock at different phases or switch between locking and drifting depending on their initial conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn contemporary healthcare, effective risk stratification in the general population is vital amidst rising chronic disease rates and an ageing demographic. Deceleration Capacity of the heart rate (DC), derived from 24-hour Holter electrocardiograms, holds promise in risk stratification for cardiac patients. However, the potential of short-term electrocardiograms of five minutes duration for population screening has not been fully explored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Even though antithrombotic therapy (ATT) probably has little or even negative effect on the well-being of patients with cancer near the end of life, it is often continued until death, possibly leading to excess bleeding complications, increased disease burden, reduced quality of life and higher healthcare costs.
Aim: To explore and describe European practice patterns and perspectives of healthcare professionals from different disciplines and specialties on ATT in the end-of-life care (EOLC) of patients with cancer.
Methods: We performed a two-week international cross-sectional survey study using flash-mob research methodology.
Background: Many patients do not receive a comprehensive medication reconciliation, mostly owing to limited resources. We hence need an approach to identify those patients at the emergency department (ED) who are at increased risk for clinically relevant discrepancies.
Objective: The aim of our study was to develop and externally validate a prediction model to identify patients at risk for at least 1 clinically relevant medication discrepancy upon ED presentation.
Proteases are key effectors in macrophage function during the initiation and resolution of inflammation. Recent studies have shown that some proteases, traditionally considered extracellular, also exhibit enzymatic and non-enzymatic functions within the cell. This study explores the differential protease landscapes of macrophages based on their phenotype.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Acarbose is a type 2 diabetes medicine that prevents dietary starch breakdown into glucose by inhibiting host amylase and glucosidase enzymes. Numerous gut species in the genus enzymatically break down starch and change in relative abundance within the gut microbiome in acarbose-treated individuals. To mechanistically explain this observation, we used two model starch-degrading , (Bo), and (Bt).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNatural and technological networks exhibit dynamics that can lead to complex cooperative behaviors, such as synchronization in coupled oscillators and rhythmic activity in neuronal networks. Understanding these collective dynamics is crucial for deciphering a range of phenomena from brain activity to power grid stability. Recent interest in co-evolutionary networks has highlighted the intricate interplay between dynamics on and of the network with mixed time scales.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtracellular vesicles, small membrane-bound packages secreted by virtually all cells of the body, have become a focus of interest in nephrology over the recent years. After the first characterization of their proteomic and transcriptomic content, scientific attention shifted toward their potential as biomarkers for kidney diseases both as diagnostic and monitoring tools. More recently, researchers have begun exploring whether extracellular vesicles mediate intercellular signaling inside the nephron and between the kidney and other organs throughout the body.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInverse stochastic resonance (ISR) is a counterintuitive phenomenon where noise reduces the oscillation frequency of an oscillator to a minimum occurring at an intermediate noise intensity, and sometimes even to the complete absence of oscillations. In neuroscience, ISR was first experimentally verified with cerebellar Purkinje neurons [Buchin et al., PLOS Comput.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Exome sequencing has been established as a fundamental tool in genetic diagnostics. It may also provide information about variants in genes unrelated to the primary purpose, so-called secondary findings. Especially, diagnoses of unnoticed inborn cardiac diseases are of high clinical relevance due to therapeutic options in context of prevention of sudden cardiac death.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute lower gastrointestinal GVHD (aLGI-GVHD) is a serious complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Although the intestinal microbiota is associated with the incidence of aLGI-GVHD, how the intestinal microbiota impacts treatment responses in aLGI-GVHD has not been thoroughly studied. In a cohort of patients with aLGI-GVHD (n = 37), we found that non-response to standard therapy with corticosteroids was associated with prior treatment with carbapenem antibiotics and a disrupted fecal microbiome characterized by reduced abundances of Bacteroides ovatus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSDF-1/CXCL12 is a unique chemotactic factor with multiple functions on various types of precursor cells, all carrying the cognate receptor CXCR4. Whereas individual biological functions of SDF-1/CXCL12 have been well documented, practical applications in medicine are insufficiently studied. This is explained by the complex multifunctional biology of SDF-1 with systemic and local effects, critical dependence of SDF-1 activity on aminoterminal proteolytic processing and limited knowledge of applicable modulators of its activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSymbiotic interactions between humans and our communities of resident gut microbes (microbiota) play many roles in health and disease. Some gut bacteria utilize mucus as a nutrient source and can under certain conditions damage the protective barrier it forms, increasing disease susceptibility. We investigated how a known mucin degrader that has been implicated in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs)-degrades mucin glycoproteins or their component -linked glycans to understand its effects on the availability of mucin-derived nutrients for other bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) represents the gold standard in the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) and the use of single-shot techniques, such as cryoballoon ablation (CBA) and pulsed field ablation (PFA) using a pentaspline catheter, has gained prominence. Recent studies hypothesize that PFA might be superior to CBA, although procedural efficacy and safety data are inconsistent. A meta-analysis was conducted to compare both energy sources for the treatment of AF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcarbose is a type-2 diabetes medicine that inhibits dietary starch breakdown into glucose by inhibiting host amylase and glucosidase enzymes. Numerous gut species in the genus enzymatically break down starch and change in relative abundance within the gut microbiome in acarbose-treated individuals. To mechanistically explain this observation, we used two model starch-degrading , (Bo) and (Bt).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe erosion of the colonic mucus layer by a dietary fiber-deprived gut microbiota results in heightened susceptibility to an attaching and effacing pathogen, Citrobacter rodentium. Nevertheless, the questions of whether and how specific mucolytic bacteria aid in the increased pathogen susceptibility remain unexplored. Here, we leverage a functionally characterized, 14-member synthetic human microbiota in gnotobiotic mice to deduce which bacteria and functions are responsible for the pathogen susceptibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnxiety is common in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). The parent version of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS-P) is a widely used measure to assess anxiety across a broad range of childhood populations. However, assessment of the measurement properties of the SCAS-P in NDDs have been limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStructurally complex corn bran arabinoxylan (CAX) was used as a model glycan to investigate gut bacteria growth and competition on different AX-based fine structures. Nine hydrolyzate segments of the CAX polymer varying in chemical structure (sugars and linkages), CAX, five less complex non-corn arabinoxylans, and xylose and glucose were ranked from structurally complex to simple. The substrate panel promoted different overall growth and rates of growth of eight xylan-degrading strains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are chronic conditions characterized by periods of spontaneous intestinal inflammation and are increasing in industrialized populations. Combined with host genetics, diet and gut bacteria are thought to contribute prominently to IBDs, but mechanisms are still emerging. In mice lacking the IBD-associated cytokine, interleukin-10, we show that a fiber-deprived gut microbiota promotes the deterioration of colonic mucus, leading to lethal colitis.
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