Revisiting Africa's Stroke Obstacles and Services (SOS).

Background: As one of the most common non-communicable diseases in Africa, Stroke ought to be dealt with properly with intensifying efforts to control its burden and to face obstacles in its management.

Methods And Results: In this follow-up study we reanalyzed stroke services and related obstacles in 17 African countries that were previously studied in 2021/22 in aspects related to manpower, acute stroke services, rehabilitation programs, number of stroke units/centers, telestroke services, awareness campaigns, and national and international stroke registries through a survey that was sent to stroke specialists and national stroke societies. Overall, there is an improvement in many fields yet many obstacles in the implementation of telestroke services, acute management, secondary prevention, post-discharge services, and follow-ups whether governmental, medical, or societal are prevalent.

Cost-utility analysis of longstanding exercise therapy versus usual care in people with rheumatoid arthritis and severe functional limitations.

Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of longstanding personalized exercise therapy compared with usual care in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and severe functional disability.

Method: In this cost-utility analysis of a randomized controlled trial (n = 215), with 1 year follow-up, the study population comprised individuals with RA and reported severe difficulties in performing basic daily activities. Assessments were at baseline, 12, 26, and 52 weeks, with measurements of costs including medical and non-medical costs as recorded by patients and healthcare providers.

One-year effectiveness of long-term exercise therapy in people with axial spondyloarthritis and severe functional limitations.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of long-term, personalized, supervised exercise therapy on functional ability compared with usual care in people with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) and severe functional limitations.

Methods: Participants were randomly 1:1 assigned to the intervention(maximal 64 sessions, with 14 additional optional sessions of supervised active exercise therapy(e.g.

The Extent and Nature of Functional Limitations According to the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Severe Functional Disability.

Background: For a subgroup of people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and severe disability, insight into their limitations is crucial for adequate treatment.

Aim: To describe the extent and nature of functional limitations in people with RA and severe disability and to explore the associations of the extent of the functional limitations with patient characteristics, disease characteristics, and outcome measures.

Methods: Baseline data of 215 participants in an RCT on the (cost-)effectiveness of longstanding physiotherapy were used.

Stakeholder Perspectives on Factors Related to Deprescribing Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Older Adults Receiving Dialysis.

Background: Potentially inappropriate medications, or medications that generally carry more risk of harm than benefit in older adults, are commonly prescribed to older adults receiving dialysis. Deprescribing, a systematic approach to reducing or stopping a medication, is a potential solution to limit potentially inappropriate medications use. Our objective was to identify clinicians and patient perspectives on factors related to deprescribing to inform design of a deprescribing program for dialysis clinics.

Educational readiness among health professionals in rheumatology: low awareness of EULAR offerings and unfamiliarity with the course content as major barriers-results of a EULAR-funded European survey.

Background: Ongoing education of health professionals in rheumatology (HPR) is critical for high-quality care. An essential factor is education readiness and a high quality of educational offerings. We explored which factors contributed to education readiness and investigated currently offered postgraduate education, including the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) offerings.

Physical therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and axial spondyloarthritis: the patients' perspective.

Objective: To assess the duration, frequency, and content of individual physical therapy (PT) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA).

Method: In this cross-sectional study, an electronic questionnaire aimed at people with RA and axSpA was distributed through various communication channels of the Dutch Arthritis Foundation. It comprised questions on sociodemographic and health characteristics, received PT (currently and/or in the past year) and, if applicable, its duration, frequency, and content (active exercises, manual treatment, physical modalities, and/or counselling/education).

Suitability of the animated activity questionnaire for use as computer adaptive test: establishing the AAQ-CAT.

Purpose: The animated activity questionnaire (AAQ) is a computer-based measure of activity limitations. To answer a question, patients choose the animation of a person performing an activity that matches their own level of limitation. The AAQ has not yet been tested for suitability to be applied as computer-adaptive test (CAT).

Construct validity of the PROMIS PF-10 in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases and severe limitations in physical functioning.

Objective: Assessing the construct validity of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Physical Function 10-Item Short Form (PROMIS PF-10) in a subpopulation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) patients with severe limitations in physical functioning (PF).

Method: RA/axSpA patients with severe functional limitations completed the PROMIS PF-10, Health Assessment Questionnaire - Disability Index (HAQ-DI for RA) or Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI for axSpA), 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), EuroQol 5-dimensions 5-level (index score, EQ-VAS), and performed the Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT). Construct validity was assessed by computing Spearman rank or Pearson correlation coefficients and testing hypotheses about correlations between the PROMIS PF-10 and measures of PF and quality of life.

Web-Based System to Capture Consistent and Complete Real-world Data of Physical Therapy Interventions Following Total Knee Replacement: Design and Evaluation Study.

Background: Electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to facilitate consistent clinical data capture to support excellence in patient care, quality improvement, and knowledge generation. Despite widespread EHR use, the vision to transform health care system and its data to a "learning health care system" generating knowledge from real-world data is limited by the lack of consistent, structured clinical data.

Objective: The purpose of this paper was to demonstrate the design of a web-based structured clinical intervention data capture system and its evaluation in practice.

Haplotype sequence collection of ABO blood group alleles by long-read sequencing reveals putative A1-diagnostic variants.

In the era of blood group genomics, reference collections of complete and fully resolved blood group gene alleles have gained high importance. For most blood groups, however, such collections are currently lacking, as resolving full-length gene sequences as haplotypes (ie, separated maternal/paternal origin) remains exceedingly difficult with both Sanger and short-read next-generation sequencing. Using the latest third-generation long-read sequencing, we generated a collection of fully resolved sequences for all 6 main ABO allele groups: ABO∗A1/A2/B/O.

Detailed stratified GWAS analysis for severe COVID-19 in four European populations.

Given the highly variable clinical phenotype of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a deeper analysis of the host genetic contribution to severe COVID-19 is important to improve our understanding of underlying disease mechanisms. Here, we describe an extended genome-wide association meta-analysis of a well-characterized cohort of 3255 COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure and 12 488 population controls from Italy, Spain, Norway and Germany/Austria, including stratified analyses based on age, sex and disease severity, as well as targeted analyses of chromosome Y haplotypes, the human leukocyte antigen region and the SARS-CoV-2 peptidome. By inversion imputation, we traced a reported association at 17q21.

Stratified exercise therapy does not improve outcomes compared with usual exercise therapy in people with knee osteoarthritis (OCTOPuS study): a cluster randomised trial.

Question: In people with knee osteoarthritis, how much more effective is stratified exercise therapy that distinguishes three subgroups (high muscle strength subgroup, low muscle strength subgroup, obesity subgroup) in reducing knee pain and improving physical function than usual exercise therapy?

Design: Pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial in a primary care setting.

Participants: A total of 335 people with knee osteoarthritis: 153 in an experimental arm and 182 in a control arm.

Intervention: Physiotherapy practices were randomised into an experimental arm providing stratified exercise therapy (supplemented by a dietary intervention from a dietician for the obesity subgroup) or a control arm providing usual, non-stratified exercise therapy.

Consensus-based recommendations on communication and education regarding primary care physical therapy for patients with systemic sclerosis.

Objective: This study aimed to develop recommendations for communication and postgraduate education regarding primary care physical therapy for systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients.

Methods: A virtual Nominal Group Technique was used with tasks forces for communication (n = 18) and education (n = 21). Both included rheumatologists, physical therapists (PTs) in primary, secondary or tertiary care, rheumatology nurses, advanced nurse practictioners and patient representatives.

Stroke services in Africa: What is there and what is needed.

Background: Over the past few years, the incidence and prevalence of stroke has been rising in most African countries and has been reported as one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. To study this problem, we need to realize the quality and availability of stroke care services as a priori to improve them.

Methods And Results: In this study, we investigated the availability of different stroke-related services in 17 countries from different African regions.

Reassessment of Relevance and Predictive Value of Parameters Indicating Early Graft Dysfunction in Liver Transplantation: AST Is a Weak, but Bilirubin and INR Strong Predictors of Mortality.

Early graft dysfunction (EAD) complicates liver transplantation (LT). The aim of this analysis was to discriminate between the weight of each variable as for its predictive value toward patient and graft survival. We reviewed all LT performed at the Medical University of Innsbruck between 2007 and 2018.

Mutational landscape of high-grade B-cell lymphoma with , and/or rearrangements characterized by whole-exome sequencing.

High-grade B-cell lymphoma accompanied with double/triple-hit MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements (HGBLDH/ TH) poses a cytogenetically-defined provisional entity among aggressive B-cell lymphomas that is traditionally associated with unfavorable prognosis. In order to better understand the mutational and molecular landscape of HGBLDH/ TH we here performed whole-exome sequencing and deep panel next-generation sequencing of 47 clinically annotated cases. Oncogenic drivers, mutational signatures and perturbed pathways were compared with data from follicular lymphoma (FL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and Burkitt lymphoma (BL).

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of longstanding exercise therapy versus usual care in patients with axial spondyloarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis and severe limitations: The protocols of two parallel randomized controlled trials.

Objectives: Research on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of longstanding exercise therapy in patients with axial SpondyloArthritis (axSpA) or Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is scarce, and mainly concerned patients with a relatively favorable health status. We aim to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of longstanding exercise therapy compared to usual care in the subgroup of patients with axSpA or RA and severe limitations in functioning.

Methods: In two separate, parallel randomized controlled trials the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of longstanding, active exercise therapy (52 weeks) compared with usual care (1:1) will be evaluated.

Point-of-care testing and treatment of sexually transmitted and genital infections during pregnancy in Papua New Guinea (WANTAIM trial): protocol for an economic evaluation alongside a cluster-randomised trial.

Introduction: Left untreated, sexually transmitted and genital infections (henceforth STIs) in pregnancy can lead to serious adverse outcomes for mother and child. Papua New Guinea (PNG) has among the highest prevalence of curable STIs including syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhoea, trichomoniasis and bacterial vaginosis, and high neonatal mortality rates. Diagnosis and treatment of these STIs in PNG rely on syndromic management.

Cross-cultural validity of the Animated Activity Questionnaire for patients with hip and knee osteoarthritis: a comparison between the Netherlands and Brazil.

Background: The Animated Activity Questionnaire (AAQ) was developed in the Netherlands to assess activity limitations in individuals with hip/knee osteoarthritis (HKOA). The AAQ is easy to implement and minimizes the disadvantages of questionnaires and performance-based tests by closely mimicking real-life situations. The AAQ has already been cross-culturally validated in six other countries.

Genomic insights into the pathogenesis of Epstein-Barr virus-associated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma by whole-genome and targeted amplicon sequencing.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma not otherwise specified (DLBCL NOS) constitute a distinct clinicopathological entity in the current World Health Organization (WHO) classification. However, its genomic features remain sparsely characterized. Here, we combine whole-genome sequencing (WGS), targeted amplicon sequencing (tNGS), and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) from 47 EBV + DLBCL (NOS) cases to delineate the genomic landscape of this rare disease.

Static cold storage compared with normothermic machine perfusion of the liver and effect on ischaemic-type biliary lesions after transplantation: a propensity score-matched study.

Background: Given the susceptibility of organs to ischaemic injury, alternative preservation methods to static cold storage (SCS), such as normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) are emerging. The aim of this study was to perform a comparison between NMP and SCS in liver transplantation with particular attention to bile duct lesions.

Methods: The outcomes of 59 consecutive NMP-preserved donor livers were compared in a 1 : 1 propensity score-matched fashion to SCS control livers.