3D nanocomposites of β-TCP-HBO-Cu with improved mechanical and biological performances for bone regeneration applications.

Recently, 3-D porous architecture of the composites play a key role in cell proliferation, bone regeneration, and anticancer activities. The osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties of β-TCP allow for the complete repair of numerous bone defects. Herein, β-TCP was synthesized by wet chemical precipitation route, and their 3-D porous composites with HBO and Cu nanoparticles were prepared by the solid-state reaction method with improved mechanical and biological performances.

Clinical and Histopathological Characteristics of Acquired Inflammatory Blaschko-Linear Disorders.

Introduction: Acquired inflammatory Blaschko-linear dermatoses have not been studied extensively. Descriptive studies on segmental vitiligo have yielded insights helpful in counseling patients. Similar insights are expected from studies on other acquired inflammatory Blaschko-linear diseases.

A Survey on Quality of Services, Training, and Attitude of Dermatology Trainee Residents About Sexually Transmitted Infections in Teaching Hospitals Across India.

Introduction: The incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) has increased disproportionately to STI services. It is uncertain how many residents trained in STI services continue them. This study assessed the self-rated quality of training and attitudes about STI services amongst residents of Indian teaching hospitals.

Prevalence and outcome of sarcopenia in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a follow-up study.

Background/aims: Sarcopenia is implicated in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) complications and surgical outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and follow-up of sarcopenia in patients with IBD.

Methods: Consecutive consenting patients with IBD aged > 18 years were included.

Corrigendum: Cipaglucosidase alfa plus miglustat: linking mechanism of action to clinical outcomes in late-onset Pompe disease.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2024.

DAA-PASS: A Prospective Evaluation of HCC Recurrence After Direct Acting Antiviral Therapy.

Direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy is associated with a significant reduction in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) incidence among patients with cirrhosis, but data are conflicting about the risk of recurrence following DAA therapy. DAA-PASS was a prospective, pragmatic, observational study designed to estimate the risk of HCC recurrence associated with DAA therapy exposure during routine clinical care. Eligible patients were DAA treatment naive with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage A.

Enhancing single-cell transcriptomics using interposed anchor oligonucleotide sequences.

Single-cell transcriptomics, which utilises barcodes and unique molecular identifiers (UMIs) for polyA+ mRNA capture, is compromised by oligonucleotide synthesis errors. To address this, we modified the oligonucleotide capture design and integrated an interposed anchor between the barcode and the UMI. This design significantly reduces the need to discard reads due to synthesis inaccuracies.

Differential aging trends among Liver Transplant candidates with and without hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has become a leading indication for liver transplant (LT), with HCC registrants increasing more than six-fold in the past two decades, accompanied by a significant rise in older candidates. Given this trend and the influence of hepatitis C (HCV) treatments, updated data on aging and changing etiologies in older HCC patients are needed. This study examines age trends, clinical characteristics, and transplant outcomes by comparing older (70+), younger HCC patients, and non-HCC patients.

HDL-associated vitamin D binding protein levels are inversely associated with necrotic plaque burden in psoriasis.

Background And Aims: Vitamin D binding protein (DBP) serves a dual function as a vitamin D carrier and actin scavenger. Free DBP is present in high concentrations in serum, while a smaller pool is bound to lipoproteins like HDL and VLDL. The role of DBP's interaction with lipoproteins remains unclear.

Downstaging of hepatocellular carcinoma before liver transplantation: Results from a national multi-center prospective cohort study.

Background Aims: Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) meeting UNOS-downstaging (DS) criteria have excellent post-liver transplantation (LT) outcomes. Studies on HCC beyond UNOS-DS criteria ("All-comers" (AC)) have been limited by small sample size and short follow-up time, prompting this analysis.

Approach Results: 326 patients meeting UNOS-DS and 190 meeting AC criteria from 9 LT centers across 5 UNOS regions were enrolled from 2015 to 2023 and prospectively followed.

Comparison of a Novel Ultra-Widefield Three-Color Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope to Other Retinal Imaging Modalities in Chorioretinal Lesion Imaging.

Purpose: To compare the assessment of clinically relevant retinal and choroidal lesions as well as optic nerve pathologies using a novel three-wavelength ultra-widefield (UWF) scanning laser ophthalmoscope with established retinal imaging techniques for ophthalmoscopic imaging.

Methods: Eighty eyes with a variety of retinal and choroidal lesions were assessed on the same time point using Topcon color fundus photography (CFP) montage, Optos red/green (RG), Heidelberg SPECTRALIS MultiColor 55-color montage (MCI), and novel Optos red/green/blue (RGB). Paired images of the optic nerve, retinal, or choroidal lesions were initially diagnosed based on CFP imaging.

Revisiting Tension Band Principle Using Fiber Tape in Patella Fractures in Terms of Functional Outcomes, Complications, and Resurgery.

Introduction: Post-operative complications related to hardware, particularly symptoms caused by it, such as implant impingement, wire breakage, and skin infection are frequently reported following surgical management of patellar fractures with stainless steel wires. As a potential solution, some researchers have advocated for the use of non-absorbable sutures for fracture fixation. This study aims to investigate the clinical and radiological outcomes of patients treated with fiber taping as an alternative technique.

No penalty for blocking: Preoperative nerve blocks do not prevent motor nerve stimulation during TMR.

The timing of nerve blocks for amputation surgery with immediate targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) has been disputed. Traditional practices often defer nerve blocks until post-amputation, fearing interference with motor nerve target identification for TMR. Here, we present a case series demonstrating that pre-amputation regional nerve blocks do not prevent the identification of motor nerve targets.

Twelve tips on applying AI tools in HPE scholarship using Boyer's model.

AI has changed the landscape of health professions education. With the hype now behind us, we find ourselves in the phase of reckoning, considering what's next; where do we start and how can educators use these powerful tools for daily teaching and learning. We recognize the great need for training to use AI meaningfully for education.

Creating custom GPTs for faculty development: An example using the Johari Window and Crucial Conversation frameworks for providing feedback to struggling students.

Feedback plays a crucial role in the growth and development of trainees, particularly when addressing areas needing improvement. However, faculty members often struggle to deliver constructive feedback, particularly when discussing underperformance. A key obstacle is the lack of comfort many faculty experience in providing feedback that fosters growth.

Using Implementation Science to Assess Barriers to Agreement on Sedation Goal Setting and Assessment.

Objectives: Sedation assessment and goal setting using a validated assessment tool are key components of the ICU Liberation bundle. Appropriate integration of these bundle elements into daily practice remains challenging. Understanding barriers is an important step toward implementation of these best practice bundle elements.

Magnetotactic bacteria affiliated with diverse Pseudomonadota families biomineralize intracellular Ca-carbonate.

Intracellular calcium carbonate formation has long been associated with a single genus of giant Gammaproteobacteria, Achromatium. However, this biomineralization has recently received increasing attention after being observed in photosynthetic Cyanobacteriota and in two families of magnetotactic bacteria affiliated with the Alphaproteobacteria. In the latter group, bacteria form not only intracellular amorphous calcium carbonates into large inclusions that are refringent under the light microscope, but also intracellular ferrimagnetic crystals into organelles called magnetosomes.

Alkane degradation coupled to Fe(III) reduction mediated by Gram-positive bacteria.

Petroleum hydrocarbon contamination, such as n-alkanes, poses a significant global threat to ecosystems and human health. Microbial remediation emerges as a promising strategy for addressing this issue through both aerobic and anaerobic processes. Notably, the majority of anaerobic hydrocarbon degraders identified to date are Gram-negative bacteria.

Hepatocellular carcinoma: updates on epidemiology, surveillance, diagnosis and treatment.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major global burden, ranking as the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality. HCC due to chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) or C virus (HCV) infection has decreased due to universal vaccination for HBV and effective antiviral therapy for both HBV and HCV, but HCC related to metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is increasing. Biannual liver ultrasonography and serum α-fetoprotein are the primary surveillance tools for early HCC detection among high-risk patients (e.

Value of HCC surveillance in a landscape of emerging surveillance options: Perspectives of a multi-stakeholder modified delphi panel.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance is recommended by liver professional societies but lacks broad acceptance by several primary care and cancer societies due to limitations in the existing data. We convened a diverse multidisciplinary group of cancer screening experts to evaluate current and future paradigms of HCC prevention and early detection using a rigorous Delphi panel approach. The experts had high agreement on twenty-one statements about primary prevention, HCC surveillance benefits, HCC surveillance harms, and the evaluation of emerging surveillance modalities.

Multiphasic Computed Tomography Enhancement Characteristics and Utility of Delayed Phase in Infiltrative Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

 The aims of this study are to compare the multiphasic contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) characteristics of infiltrative hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with nodular HCC and to assess the conspicuity of infiltrative HCC on different phases of CECT.  This retrospective study comprised consecutive treatment-naive cirrhotic patients diagnosed with infiltrative and nodular HCC between January 2020 and December 2021 based on a multiphasic CECT (comprising arterial, portal venous, and delayed phases). The diagnosis of HCC was based on the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) v2018 criteria (LR-4 and LR-5 lesions).

Sustained effects of repeated levodopa (L-DOPA) administration on reward circuitry, effort-based motivation, and anhedonia in depressed patients with higher inflammation.

Inflammatory biomarkers like C-reactive protein (CRP) are elevated in a subset of patients with depression and have been associated with lower functional connectivity (FC) in a ventral striatum (VS) to ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) reward circuit and symptoms of anhedonia. Evidence linking these relationships to the effects of inflammation on dopamine is consistent with our recent findings that acute levodopa (L-DOPA) increased VS-vmPFC FC in association with deceased anhedonia in depressed patients with higher but not lower CRP (>2 versus ≤ 2 mg/L). To determine whether repeated L-DOPA administration caused sustained effects on FC and behavior in these patients, medically stable depressed outpatients with CRP > 2 mg/L and anhedonia (n = 18) received one week of three doses of L-DOPA (150-450 mg/day/week with carbidopa) or placebo in a randomized order.

De novo variants disrupt an LDB1-regulated transcriptional network in congenital ventriculomegaly.

Congenital hydrocephalus (CH), characterized by cerebral ventriculomegaly (CV), is among the most common and least understood pediatric neurosurgical disorders. We have identified in the largest-assembled CV cohort (>2,697 parent-proband trios) an exome-wide significant enrichment of protein-altering de novo variants (DNVs) in LDB1 (p = 1.11 x 10-15).

Current Update on Promising New Anti-Alzheimer's Drugs in Different Phases of Clinical Development: Where Exactly Are We Lacking?

The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is rising with an aging population worldwide and is expected to surpass 130 million by 2050. India is no exception, but the true prevalence data on AD is not conclusive. By 2050, India will have almost 15% of the population aged 60 years or above.