Spectrum and demographic profile of pediatric intraocular tumors from a single center in India: an analysis of 445 eyes.

Background: To describe the spectrum, demographic profile and distribution of intraocular oncology cases; both benign and malignant, in pediatric population in India.

Methods: It was a retrospective study done at a tertiary care hospital over a period of seven years (January 2015- December 2022) which included all the children aged 0-16 years, clinically diagnosed as intraocular tumors (benign or malignant) referred to our Ocular Oncology clinic. The data was retrieved from medical records department as well as electronic medical system (EMR) system.

Repeated epidural stimulation modulates cervical spinal cord excitability in healthy adult rats.

Spinal evoked motor responses (SEMR) are utilized in longitudinal pre-clinical and human studies to reflect the in-vivo physiological changes in neural networks secondary to a spinal cord injury (SCI) or neuro-rehabilitative treatments utilizing epidural stimulation (ES). However, it remains unknown whether the repeated ES exposure during SEMR testing itself modulates spinal cord physiology and accompanying SEMR characteristics. To answer this, ES was delivered to the cervical spinal cord using standard stimulation paradigms during multiple SEMR data acquisition sessions (~ 17 h spanning across 100 days) in ten healthy adult rats.

Clinical Evaluation of a Novel CRISPR-Cas12a-Based RID-MyC Assay for the Diagnosis of Fungal Endophthalmitis.

Objective: This study evaluates the RID-MyC (Rapid Identification of Mycoses using CRISPR) assay, a CRISPR/Cas12a-based diagnostic tool, for its efficacy in diagnosing fungal endophthalmitis (FE), comparing it with panfungal PCR and culture methods.

Design: A comparative cross-sectional study assessing the performance of the RID-MyC assay against established diagnostic modalities for FE.

Subjects: The study included 133 intraocular samples from 117 patients with suspected microbial endophthalmitis.

Artificial intelligence applied to coronary artery calcium scans (AI-CAC) significantly improves cardiovascular events prediction.

Coronary artery calcium (CAC) scans contain valuable information beyond the Agatston Score which is currently reported for predicting coronary heart disease (CHD) only. We examined whether new artificial intelligence (AI) applied to CAC scans can predict non-CHD events, including heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and stroke. We applied AI-enabled automated cardiac chambers volumetry and calcified plaque characterization to CAC scans (AI-CAC) of 5830 asymptomatic individuals (52.

Novel comprehensive analysis of skilled reaching and grasping behavior in adult rats.

Background: Reaching and grasping (R&G) in rats is commonly used as an outcome measure to investigate the effectiveness of rehabilitation or treatment strategies to recover forelimb function post spinal cord injury. Kinematic analysis has been limited to the wrist and digit movements. Kinematic profiles of the more proximal body segments that play an equally crucial role in successfully executing the task remain unexplored.

A Novel Pathway of Platelet Activation in ACS Mediated by LL-37 Immunoglobulin G Autoantibody Immune Complexes.

The cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide LL-37 is a self-antigen in neutrophil extracellular traps that provokes autoantibody responses in autoimmune/autoinflammatory conditions. LL-37 immunoglobulin (Ig) G autoantibody levels were measured in subjects with and without atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease assessed using the coronary artery calcium score, in patients who had a future myocardial infarction and in a cohort of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. LL-37 IgG levels were not associated with coronary artery calcium score, but future myocardial infarction patients had significantly higher LL-37 IgG at baseline.

Automated cell lineage reconstruction using label-free 4D microscopy.

Patterns of lineal descent play a critical role in the development of metazoan embryos. In eutelic organisms that generate a fixed number of somatic cells, invariance in the topology of their cell lineage provides a powerful opportunity to interrogate developmental events with empirical repeatability across individuals. Studies of embryonic development using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have been drivers of discovery.

A rare case of pituitary stalk interruption syndrome (PSIS) presenting as short stature in an 8-year-old female.

Pituitary stalk interruption syndrome is a rare, congenital abnormality. Early identification and treatment can improve patient prognosis and quality of life and prevent adverse effect on growth and development. The patient described is an 8-year-old child with a history of short stature.

To assess the knowledge, attitudes, and confidence of caregivers and administrators towards the oral health of nursing home residents in San Antonio, Texas.

Objective: The primary objective of this research was to use qualitative methods to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and confidence of caregivers in their ability to provide oral hygiene assistance to residents. The secondary objective was to assess the knowledge and attitude of administrators on the provision of oral hygiene assistance for residents, and their confidence in caregivers' ability to provide oral hygiene assistance to nursing home residents in San Antonio, Texas.

Methods: A semi-structured interview guide was used to conduct face-to-face interviews with seven caregivers and twelve administrative staff from ten nursing homes in San Antonio, Texas.

Differentiation between descending thoracic aortic diseases using machine learning and plasma proteomic signatures.

Background: Descending thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections can go undetected until severe and catastrophic, and few clinical indices exist to screen for aneurysms or predict risk of dissection.

Methods: This study generated a plasma proteomic dataset from 75 patients with descending type B dissection (Type B) and 62 patients with descending thoracic aortic aneurysm (DTAA). Standard statistical approaches were compared to supervised machine learning (ML) algorithms to distinguish Type B from DTAA cases.

Prevalence of Unscreened Premature Infants Presenting With Advanced Stages of Retinopathy of Prematurity in South India: An Analysis of 220 Eyes.

Purpose: To evaluate the demographic profile of premature infants presenting with stage 4B and stage 5 retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) at a tertiary referral center in South India.

Methods: This was a retrospective review including all premature infants with stage 4B and 5 ROP between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2022. Parameters included the newborns born at the tertiary care nursery of various institutes, gestational age, birth weight, age at presentation to the hospital, risk factors, screening details, neonatal intensive care unit details, reason for consultation, and timing of referral to the center.

Antibiotic Susceptibility and Biofilm Production among Coagulase Negative Staphylococci Isolated from Clinical Samples at Tertiary Care Hospital.

Background: Coagulase Negative Staphylococci have been widely associated with medical device implant treatment and immune-compromised patients. Despite having increasing interest in Coagulase Negative Staphylococci, few studies from Nepal have reported the association of these organisms with urinary tract infections, conjunctivitis, high vaginal swabs, and cerebrospinal fluid. This study was carried out to determine antibiotic susceptibility pattern and biofilm production among Coagulase Negative Staphylococci isolated from clinical samples at tertiary care hospital.

The scope of artificial intelligence in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) management.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to develop into a widely implemented system that could reduce the dependence on qualified professionals/experts for screening the large at-risk population, especially in the Indian scenario. Deep learning involves learning without being explicitly told what to focus on and utilizes several layers of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to create a robust algorithm that is capable of high-complexity tasks. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are a subset of ANNs that are particularly useful for image processing as well as cognitive tasks.

Multinational External Validation of Autonomous Retinopathy of Prematurity Screening.

Importance: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of blindness in children, with significant disparities in outcomes between high-income and low-income countries, due in part to insufficient access to ROP screening.

Objective: To evaluate how well autonomous artificial intelligence (AI)-based ROP screening can detect more-than-mild ROP (mtmROP) and type 1 ROP.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This diagnostic study evaluated the performance of an AI algorithm, trained and calibrated using 2530 examinations from 843 infants in the Imaging and Informatics in Retinopathy of Prematurity (i-ROP) study, on 2 external datasets (6245 examinations from 1545 infants in the Stanford University Network for Diagnosis of ROP [SUNDROP] and 5635 examinations from 2699 infants in the Aravind Eye Care Systems [AECS] telemedicine programs).

Management of Recurrence in Retinoblastoma Based on the Source of Tumor Cells.

Purpose: The aim was to study the characteristics of recurrence patterns in the form of scar recurrence, new lesions, and vitreous seeds which is necessary in anticipating future events for the management of retinoblastoma (RB).

Methods: This retrospective analytical observational study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in South India; we included 64 eyes of 45 patients having RB from January 2019 to July 2020. The inclusion criterion was treatment-naïve patients with > 12 months of follow-up period.

Genome-wide association study identifies high-impact susceptibility loci for HCC in North America.

Background And Aims: Despite the substantial impact of environmental factors, individuals with a family history of liver cancer have an increased risk for HCC. However, genetic factors have not been studied systematically by genome-wide approaches in large numbers of individuals from European descent populations (EDP).

Approach And Results: We conducted a 2-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) on HCC not affected by HBV infections.

Impact of RB1 gene screening from blood collected on a single day from 411 family members of 113 Retinoblastoma survivors in India.

Objectives: To analyse the profile and implication of genetic testing in a cohort of retinoblastoma (RB) patients and their families conducted on a single day during World Retinoblastoma Awareness Week 2017.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of blood samples were collected from 411 subjects, including 113 probands at a camp organised for RB awareness and were analysed for RB1 mutations by Sanger sequencing and Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification (MLPA). If germline mutations were detected, the parents and siblings of the proband were tested for the same mutation.