Publications by authors named "Melzer A"

Background And Importance: Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are complex vascular anomalies that pose significant risks, including intracranial hemorrhage and neurological deficits. Surgical resection is the preferred treatment, requiring precise intraoperative imaging to ensure complete removal while preserving critical structures. This case report presents the first combined use of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) and indocyanine green video angiography (ICG VA) to visualize perfusion during brain AVM surgery, highlighting the potential benefits of these advanced imaging techniques.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluated the effectiveness of shared decision-making in lung cancer screening (LCS) by analyzing patient knowledge and care experience after discussions with clinicians.
  • Out of 409 participants, only 44% understood what conditions the CT scan screens for, but 93% rated their clinician positively and reported low decision conflict.
  • The findings suggest that while patients may struggle with knowledge retention regarding LCS, they still experience high-quality communication and decision-making confidence with their clinicians.
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Article Synopsis
  • Playing non-violent video games reduces perceived stress levels, but the impact of violent games on stress is less clear, especially considering personality traits like the Dark Tetrad.
  • A lab experiment compared the effects of violent and non-violent games against a control (jigsaw puzzle) on cortisol levels, heart rate variability, and self-reported stress.
  • Results showed that both types of games lowered cortisol levels and induced relaxation, but players with higher Dark Tetrad traits felt more relaxed after violent games while experiencing stress from the puzzle.
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Objective: Experts recommend structured shared decision making when discussing lung cancer screening (LCS) and reporting low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) results. We examined patients' reactions to pre- and post-LDCT results communication processes at three medical centers in the US with established LCS programs.

Methods: Multicenter, qualitative, longitudinal study of patients considering and receiving LCS using data from semi-structured interviews guided by a patient-centered communication model using conventional content analysis.

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Background: Many organizations recommend clinicians use structured communication processes, referred to as shared decision-making, to improve patient-reported outcomes for patients considering lung cancer screening (LCS).

Research Question: Which components of high-quality patient-centered communication are associated with decision regret and distress?

Study Design And Methods: We conducted a prospective, longitudinal, repeated measures cohort study among patients undergoing LCS in three different health care systems. We surveyed participants using validated measures of decision regret, decision satisfaction, distress, and patient-clinician communication domains up to 1 year after the low-dose CT (LDCT) imaging for LCS.

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Introduction: Image-guided invasive procedures on the liver require a steep learning curve to acquire the necessary skills. The best and safest way to achieve these skills is through hands-on courses that include simulations and phantoms of different complications, without any risks for patients. There are many liver phantoms on the market made of various materials; however, there are few multimodal liver phantoms, and only two are cast in a 3D-printed mold.

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: Patients with liver pathology benefit from image-guided interventions. Training for interventional procedures is recommended to be performed on liver phantoms until a basic proficiency is reached. In the last 40 years, several attempts have been made to develop materials to mimic the imaging characteristics of the human liver in order to create liver phantoms.

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Introduction: Proactive tobacco treatment programs are an evidence-based strategy to recruit patients who smoke to make supported quit attempts. However, such programs are rarely implemented. We performed a qualitative assessment of clinicians to inform the creation of a proactive outreach program for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who smoke.

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Background: Health care organizations are increasingly developing systems to ensure patients with pulmonary nodules receive guideline-adherent care. Our goal was to determine patient and organization factors that are associated with radiologist adherence as well as clinician and patient concordance to 2005 Fleischner Society guidelines for incidental pulmonary nodule follow-up.

Materials: Trained researchers abstracted data from the electronic health record from two Veterans Affairs health care systems for patients with incidental pulmonary nodules as identified by interpreting radiologists from 2008 to 2016.

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Background: Tobacco use is undertreated in the medical setting. One driver may be inadequate tobacco use disorder treatment (TUDT) training for clinicians in specialties treating tobacco-dependent patients.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the current state of TUDT training for diverse professionals and how these skills are assessed in credentialing exams.

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Significance: Multispectral imaging (MSI) is an approach for real-time, quantitative, and non-invasive tissue perfusion measurements. Current laparoscopic systems based on mosaic sensors or filter wheels lack high spatial resolution or acceptable frame rates.

Aim: To develop a laparoscopic system for MSI-based color video and tissue perfusion imaging during gastrointestinal surgery without compromising spatial or temporal resolution.

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We investigated how playing a violent versus non-violent video game affects cortisol and testosterone levels, whether these hormonal changes increase implicit aggressive cognition, and whether so-called Dark Tetrad personality traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, everyday sadism) moderate these effects.

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Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is currently on critical path for glioblastoma therapeutics. SDT is a non-invasive approach utilising focused ultrasound to activate photosensitisers like 5-ALA to impede tumour growth. Unfortunately, the molecular mechanisms underlying the therapeutic functions of SDT remain enigmatic.

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Background: For surveillance of episodic illness, the emergency department (ED) represents one of the largest interfaces for generalizable data about segments of the US public experiencing a need for unscheduled care. This protocol manuscript describes the development and operation of a national network linking symptom, clinical, laboratory and disposition data that provides a public database dedicated to the surveillance of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in EDs.

Methods: The Respiratory Virus Laboratory Emergency Department Network Surveillance (RESP-LENS) network includes 26 academic investigators, from 24 sites, with 91 hospitals, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to survey viral infections.

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A search for a long-lived, heavy neutral lepton (N) in 139  fb^{-1} of sqrt[s]=13  TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is reported. The N is produced via W→Nμ or W→Ne and decays into two charged leptons and a neutrino, forming a displaced vertex. The N mass is used to discriminate between signal and background.

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Importance: Nearly half of the 14.8 million US adults eligible for lung cancer screening (LCS) smoke cigarettes. The optimal smoking cessation program components for the LCS setting are unclear.

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Purpose: The aim of this study was to quantify the distribution, frequency, and clinical significance of incidental findings (IFs) on initial lung cancer screening (LCS) and the association of report characteristics with subsequent assessment.

Methods: Health records of patients undergoing initial LCS from 2015 to 2018 in the Minneapolis VA Health Care System were retrospectively reviewed for demographics, Lung CT Screening Reporting & Data System coding, IFs, and subsequent clinical assessment. IFs were considered potentially significant if they were likely to require any follow-up.

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Introduction: Lung cancer screening can save lives through the early detection of lung cancer, and professional societies recommend key lung cancer screening program components to ensure high-quality screening. Yet, little is known about the key components that comprise the various screening program models in routine clinical settings. The objective was to compare the utilization of these key components across centralized, hybrid, and decentralized lung cancer screening programs.

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Focused ultrasound (FUS) has become an important non-invasive therapy for prostate tumor ablation thermal effects in the clinic. The cavitation effect induced by FUS is applied for histotripsy, support drug delivery, and the induction of blood vessel destruction for cancer therapy. Numerous studies report that cavitation-induced sonoporation could provoke multiple anti-proliferative effects on cancer cells.

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