Infectious keratitis in Western New York: a 10-year review of patient demographics, clinical management, and treatment failure.

Background: Infectious keratitis (IK) is a blinding disease and an important cause of ocular morbidity. Understanding regional trends in IK are important to understand the epidemiology and clinical outcomes of this disease.

Methods: In this 10-year retrospective review, patient characteristics including sociodemographic factors, medical history, and ocular history were collected as well as the clinical course and outcomes.

Psychometric Properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) in Older Adults With Advanced Cancer.

Objectives: Over half of new cancer diagnoses occur in patients aged 65 or older, with up to 40% experiencing anxiety. The American Society of Clinical Oncology recommends using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) for anxiety screening, but the GAD-7 psychometric properties in this population are unknown. This study examined the GAD-7's reliability, validity, and item parameters, comparing its utility with the GAD-2 in older adults with cancer.

Personalized outcomes in neuropathic pain: a clinical relevance and assay sensitivity analysis from a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To explore the clinical relevance and assay sensitivity of using personalized outcomes using data from a randomized clinical trial (RCT) in people with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN).

Design: This study is a secondary analysis that leveraged data from a RCT of transcutaneous electrical stimulation for CIPN to test whether personalized outcomes could minimize potential floor effects and increase the assay sensitivity of pain clinical trials (ie, ability to detect a true treatment effect).

Setting: Participants were recruited for a RCT from community oncology clinics in the United States.

Exploring the reliability and validity of clinically-relevant outcome measures for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.

Purpose: To explore the reliability and validity of clinically-relevant outcome measures for balance (i.e., The Short Physical Performance Battery [SPPB] - Balance Subscale) and sensation (i.

Affective symptoms in pregnancy are associated with the vaginal microbiome.

Background: Composition of the vaginal microbiome in pregnancy is associated with adverse maternal, obstetric, and child health outcomes. Therefore, identifying sources of individual differences in the vaginal microbiome is of considerable clinical and public health interest. The current study tested the hypothesis that vaginal microbiome composition during pregnancy is associated with an individual's experience of affective symptoms and stress exposure.

Associations of quality of social support and accurate beliefs about curability among older adults with advanced cancer.

Introduction: Supporting older adults with advanced cancer to better understand their disease and its prognosis is important for shared decision-making. Social support is a potentially modifiable factor that may influence disease understanding. In this study, we examined the associations of quantity and quality of social support with patients' beliefs about the curability of their advanced cancer.

Exploring Analgesic Use Patterns Among Cancer Survivors With Chronic Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy.

Objectives: To explore cancer survivors' historical and current use of analgesics for chronic chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN).

Sample & Setting: 142 post-treatment cancer survivors who received neurotoxic chemotherapy and were experiencing moderate to severe CIPN.

Methods & Variables: Participants completed the Treatment-Induced Neuropathy Assessment Scale at baseline and reported all analgesics used to manage CIPN.

An optimal normalization method for high sparse compositional microbiome data.

In many omics data, including microbiome sequencing data, we are only able to measure relative information. Various computational or statistical methods have been proposed to extract absolute (or biologically relevant) information from this relative information; however, these methods are under rather strong assumptions that may not be suitable for multigroup (more than two groups) and/or longitudinal outcome data. In this article, we first introduce the minimal assumption required to extract absolute from relative information.

Affective Symptoms in Pregnancy are Associated with the Vaginal Microbiome.

Composition of the vaginal microbiome in pregnancy is associated with adverse maternal, obstetric, and child health outcomes. Identifying the sources of individual differences in the vaginal microbiome is therefore of considerable clinical and public health interest. The current study tested the hypothesis that vaginal microbiome composition during pregnancy is associated with an individual's experience of affective symptoms and stress exposure.

Targeting Gut Microbiome With Prebiotic in Patients With CKD: The TarGut-CKD Study.

Introduction: Disruption of gut microbiota underpins some of the metabolic alterations observed in chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Methods: In a nonrandomized, open-label, 3-phase pilot trial, with repeated measures within each phase, we examined the efficacy of oligofructose-enriched inulin (p-inulin) in changing the gut microbiome and their metabolic products in 15 patients with CKD. The stability of microbiome and metabolome was studied during the pretreatment phase (8 weeks), a p-inulin treatment phase (12 weeks), and a post treatment phase (8 weeks) of the study.

Trajectories of physical well-being among adults with acute myeloid leukemia.

Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) often undergo physical decline leading to negative outcomes. Identification of distinct trajectories may help guide clinical decision-making and supportive care interventions. We built group-based trajectory models (GBTM) to find trajectories of change in the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Physical Well-Being (FACT-PWB) subscale (up to 5 time points over 0 to 200 days of follow-up) using data from adults with newly diagnosed AML in 4 supportive care studies.

Exercise and epigenetic ages in older adults with myeloid malignancies.

Background: Older adults with myeloid malignancies are susceptible to treatment-related toxicities. Accelerated DNAm age, or the difference between DNA methylation (DNAm) age and chronological age, may be used as a biomarker of biological age to predict individuals at risk. In addition, cancer treatment can also lead to accelerated DNAm age.

Predicting Treatment Response with Sensory Phenotyping in Post-Traumatic Neuropathic Pain.

Objective: Currently available treatments for neuropathic pain are only modestly efficacious when assessed in randomized clinical trials and work for only some patients in the clinic. Induced-pain or gain-of-function phenotypes have been shown to predict response to analgesics (vs placebos) in patients with neuropathic pain. However, the predictive value of these phenotypes has never been studied in post-traumatic neuropathic pain.

Inflammation, Attention, and Processing Speed in Patients With Breast Cancer Before and After Chemotherapy.

Background: Inflammation may contribute to cognitive difficulties in patients with breast cancer. We tested 2 hypotheses: inflammation is elevated in patients with breast cancer vs noncancer control participants and inflammation in patients is associated with worse attention and processing speed over the course of chemotherapy.

Methods: Serum cytokines (interleukin [IL]-4, 6, 8, 10; tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α) and soluble receptors [sTNFRI, II]) were measured in 519 females with breast cancer before and after chemotherapy and 338 females without cancer serving as control participants.

Machine Learning Approach Identified Multi-Platform Factors for Caries Prediction in Child-Mother Dyads.

Untreated tooth decays affect nearly one third of the world and is the most prevalent disease burden among children. The disease progression of tooth decay is multifactorial and involves a prolonged decrease in pH, resulting in the demineralization of tooth surfaces. Bacterial species that are capable of fermenting carbohydrates contribute to the demineralization process by the production of organic acids.

A compositional mediation model for a binary outcome: Application to microbiome studies.

Motivation: The delicate balance of the microbiome is implicated in our health and is shaped by external factors, such as diet and xenobiotics. Therefore, understanding the role of the microbiome in linking external factors and our health conditions is crucial to translate microbiome research into therapeutic and preventative applications.

Results: We introduced a sparse compositional mediation model for binary outcomes to estimate and test the mediation effects of the microbiome utilizing the compositional algebra defined in the simplex space and a linear zero-sum constraint on probit regression coefficients.

Genomics of Staphylococcus aureus ocular isolates.

Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of ocular infections, often resulting in devastating vision loss. Despite the significant morbidity associated with these infections, little is yet known regarding the specific strain types that may have a predilection for ocular tissues nor the set of virulence factors that drive its pathogenicity in this specific biological niche. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) can provide valuable insight in this regard by providing a prospective, comprehensive assessment of the strain types and virulence factors driving disease among specific subsets of clinical isolates.

The Microbiome and p-Inulin in Hemodialysis: A Feasibility Study.

Background: The intestinal microbiome is an appealing target for interventions in ESKD because of its likely contribution to uremic toxicity. Before conducting clinical trials of microbiome-altering treatments, it is necessary to understand the within-person and between-person variability in the composition and function of the gut microbiome in patients with ESKD.

Methods: We conducted a multicenter, nonrandomized, crossover feasibility study of patients on maintenance hemodialysis consisting of three phases: pretreatment (8 weeks); treatment, during which the prebiotic, p-inulin, was administered at a dosage of 8 g twice daily (12 weeks); and post-treatment (8 weeks).

Measuring Functional Status in Huntington's Disease.

Background: Neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms account for substantial morbidity in Huntington's disease (HD), but their impact on functional status may not be captured using the Total Functional Capacity (TFC) scale. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of motor, cognitive, and neuropsychiatric symptoms on functional status in persons with HD, comparing two instruments.

Methods: Multiple regression analyses assessed the relationship between neuropsychiatric, cognitive, and motor symptoms and functional status as measured using TFC and Adult Functional Adaptive Behavior (AFAB) scales.

Efficacy of a Novel Ophthalmic Antimicrobial Drug Combination Toward a Large Panel of Staphylococcus aureus Clinical Ocular Isolates From Around the World.

Purpose: Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of keratitis requiring urgent antimicrobial treatment. However, rising antibiotic resistance has rendered current ophthalmic antibiotics increasingly ineffective. First, a diverse, ocular S.

Upper Respiratory Dysbiosis with a Facultative-dominated Ecotype in Advanced Lung Disease and Dynamic Change after Lung Transplant.

The oropharyngeal microbiome is a primary source of lung microbiota, contributes to lower respiratory infection, and is also a driver of oral health. We sought to understand oropharyngeal microbial communities in advanced lung disease, community dynamics after lung transplantation, and ecological features of dysbiosis. Oropharyngeal wash samples were obtained from individuals with end-stage disease awaiting transplantation ( = 22) and longitudinally from individuals at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months after transplantation ( = 33), along with healthy control subjects ( = 14).