Comprehensive assessment of caregiver burden and strain in early-stage Parkinson's disease: An exploratory study.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting motor and cognitive functions, reducing the quality of life (QoL) for both patients and caregivers. This study explored correlations between clinical and psychological factors in early-stage PD patients and their caregivers, focusing on disease burden and caregiver stress. Nineteen PD patients and their caregivers were assessed.

Interleukin-32 positive immune and resident cells in kidney samples from lupus patients: a pilot study.

Introduction: Lupus nephritis (LN), caused by immune complexes produced or deposited from the bloodstream, is one of the most severe features of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) leading to an increased morbidity and mortality. Toll like receptors (TLRs), such as TLR3, TLR7 and TLR9, may play a key role in its pathogenesis. Interleukin-32 (IL-32), a cytokine involved in both innate and adaptive immune responses, has been widely considered in autoimmune-inflammatory rheumatic diseases.

Dynamics of resistance to immunotherapy and TKI in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Immune-based combinations are the cornerstone of the first-line treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients, leading to outstanding outcomes. Nevertheless, primary resistance and disease progression is a critical clinical challenge. To properly address this issue, it is pivotal to understand the mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy and tyrosine kinase inhibitors, that tumor eventually develop under treatment.

[18F]Tetrafluoroborate: a new NIS PET/CT radiopharmaceutical. An overview focused on differentiated thyroid cancer.

Background: In relapsing differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), the in vivo evaluation of natrium-iodine symporter (NIS) expression is pivotal in the therapeutic planning and is achieved by [131/123I]Iodine whole-body scan. However, these approaches have low sensitivity due to the low sensitivity due to the low resolution of SPECT. [18F]Tetrafluoroborate (TFB) has been proposed as a viable alternative, which could outperform [131/123I]Iodine scans owing to the superior PET resolution.

Wolbachia-Based Approaches to Controlling Mosquito-Borne Viral Threats: Innovations, AI Integration, and Future Directions in the Context of Climate Change.

Wolbachia-based mosquito control strategies have gained significant attention as a sustainable approach to reduce the transmission of vector-borne diseases such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. These endosymbiotic bacteria can limit the ability of mosquitoes to transmit pathogens, offering a promising alternative to traditional chemical-based interventions. With the growing impact of climate change on mosquito population dynamics and disease transmission, Wolbachia interventions represent an adaptable and resilient strategy for mitigating the public health burden of vector-borne diseases.

A Possible Protective Effect of IgA Against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Bronchoalveolar Lavage in COVID-19 Patients Admitted to Intensive Care Unit.

SARS-CoV-2 infection induces a humoral immune response, producing virus-specific antibodies such as IgM, IgG, and IgA. IgA antibodies are present at mucosal sites, protecting against respiratory and other mucosal infections, including SARS-CoV-2, by neutralizing viruses or impeding attachment to epithelial cells. Since SARS-CoV-2 spreads through the nasopharynx, the specific IgAs of SARS-CoV-2 are produced quickly after infection, effectively contributing to virus neutralization.

Impact of Cognitive VR vs. Traditional Training on Emotional Self-Efficacy and Cognitive Function in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Retrospective Study Focusing on Gender Differences.

Background And Aim: While conventional MS rehabilitation primarily addresses physical and cognitive symptoms, recent advances in VR technology offer immersive environments that facilitate both emotional and cognitive skill development. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of VR-based training on emotional self-efficacy in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and examine its association with cognitive function improvement. Additionally, this study aims to explore potential gender differences in these outcomes, hypothesizing that gender may influence the effectiveness of VR-based rehabilitation, which could inform more tailored approaches for emotional and cognitive rehabilitation in MS.

Semiquantitative 2-[F]FDG PET/CT-based parameters role in lymphoma.

2-deoxy-2-[F]-fluoro-D-glucose (2-[F]FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) plays a crucial role in the management of lymphoma in different settings, such as staging disease, assessing response to therapy, predicting prognosis, and planning RT. Beside visual analysis, several semiquantitative parameters were introduced to study lymphoma with promising results. These parameters can represent different disease characteristics, like body composition (such as sarcopenic index), dissemination of disease (Dmax), tumor burden (including metabolic tumor volume) and texture features.

Metastatic sites and clinical outcomes in renal cell carcinoma patients receiving immune-based combinations: the MOUSEION-08 study.

Immune-based combinations have significantly improved the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC); however, immunotherapy has reported varying degrees of efficacy across different metastatic sites, with liver and bone metastases traditionally considered more challenging to treat. In MOUSEION-08 study, we aimed to investigate the association between lung, liver, and bone metastases and clinical outcomes such as Overall Survival (OS) and Progression- Free Survival (PFS) in mRCC patients receiving immune-based combinations. The present systematic review and study-level meta-analysis was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA).

Spatial-economic scenarios to increase resilience to urban flooding.

Due to accelerating climate change and the need for new development to accommodate population growth, adaptation of urban drainage systems has become a pressing issue in cities. Questions arise whether decentralised urban drainage systems are a better alternative to centralised systems, and whether Nature Based Solutions' (NBS) multifunctionality also brings economic benefits. This research aims to develop spatio-economic scenarios to support cities in increasing their resilience to urban flooding with NBS.

Monitoring Over Time of Pathological Complete Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer Patients Through an Ensemble Vision Transformers-Based Model.

Background: Morphological and vascular characteristics of breast cancer can change during neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI)-acquired pre- and mid-treatment quantitatively capture information about tumor heterogeneity as potential earlier indicators of pathological complete response (pCR) to NAC in breast cancer.

Aims: This study aimed to develop an ensemble deep learning-based model, exploiting a Vision Transformer (ViT) architecture, which merges features automatically extracted from five segmented slices of both pre- and mid-treatment exams containing the maximum tumor area, to predict and monitor pCR to NAC.

Malleable and Static Risk Factors Associated with Boys' Patterns of Interpersonal Violence: A Latent Class Analysis.

Despite an increased risk of committing and experiencing violence among adolescent boys, little is known about either how different types of violence co-occur within individuals or their association with different risk factors. This study used a person-centered approach to (1) identify patterns in boys' perpetration and victimization across a range of 7 types of interpersonal violence (bullying, electronic aggression, sexual harassment/aggression; and psychological/ physical/sexual dating violence); and (2) examine the association of these patterns with 12 risk factors at the individual, relational, and community level to inform future prevention efforts. We used latent class analysis to identify patterns of violence among a diverse sample of 239 adolescent boys from 12 schools in 4 regions of the United States.

Treatment Sequencing and Independent Outcomes of First- and Second-Line Chemotherapy in a Retrospective Series of Patients with Biliary Tract Cancer.

Biliary tract cancers (BTCs) are aggressive neoplasms with limited therapeutic options. The amount of prospective evidence is poor, and limited data are available on the impact of treatment sequencing on survival. Here we report a real-world experience of patients with advanced BTC treated with at least three lines of therapy.

Impact of time-of-day administration of immunotherapy on survival in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: the MOUSEION-09 meta-analysis.

Studies conducted in the last few years have suggested a connection between clinical outcomes and the time of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) infusion. However, few data are available regarding the differences between early and late time-of-day (ToD) administration in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) patients receiving immunotherapy and immune-based combinations. In this meta-analysis, we aimed to fully investigate the influence of timing of administration on the efficacy of mRCC immunotherapy, by comparing early ToD versus late ToD dosing in this setting.

Microplastic pollution from pellet spillage: Analysis of the Toconao ship accident along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts.

In December 2023, 25 tons of pellets were lost by the Toconao ship in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean in front of the Portuguese coast. In this work, a coastal stretch of 633 km in Asturias and Galicia (Spain) and Northern Portugal was investigated to assess pellets' concentration on 31 beaches. Field surveys were carried out in March 2024 and focused on sampling plastic pellets deposited along the shoreline.

Intermolecular (4 + 3) Cycloadditions of Oxetanyl and Azetidinyl Enolsilanes.

We report the intermolecular (4 + 3) cycloadditions of oxetanyl and azetidinyl enolsilanes with different dienes by silylium catalysis to generate bicyclic scaffolds. These enolsilanes were competent to react with furans, cyclopentadiene, and 1,3-cyclohexadiene to deliver cycloadducts in up to 96% yields.

Apalutamide in Metastatic Castration-sensitive Prostate Cancer: Results from the Multicenter Real-world ARON-3 Study.

Background And Objective: Apalutamide (APA) is a treatment for metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC). In the ARON-3 study we investigated real-world experiences with APA treatment for mCSPC.

Methods: We retrospectively assessed real-world clinical outcomes for patients with mCSPC treated with APA in the ARON-3 study.

Reporting Guidelines for the Early-Phase Clinical Evaluation of Applications Using Extended Reality: RATE-XR Qualitative Study Guideline.

Background: Extended reality (XR), encompassing technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality, has rapidly gained prominence in health care. However, existing XR research often lacks rigor, proper controls, and standardization.

Objective: To address this and to enhance the transparency and quality of reporting in early-phase clinical evaluations of XR applications, we present the "Reporting for the early-phase clinical evaluation of applications using extended reality" (RATE-XR) guideline.

Burden and Risk Factors for Coinfections in Patients with a Viral Respiratory Tract Infection.

Which patients should be monitored for coinfections or should receive empirical antibiotic treatment, in patients with an acute viral respiratory infection, is largely unknown. We evaluated the prevalence, characteristics, outcomes of coinfected patients, and risk factors associated with a coinfection among patients with an acute viral infection. A retrospective, single-center study recruited consecutive patients from October 2022 to March 2023 presenting to the emergency department with signs of a respiratory tract infection.

Case report: STRN3-NTRK3 fusion in uterine sarcoma with spleen metastasis: a new variant in the spectrum of NTRK-rearranged tumors.

Neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) fusions are infrequent genetic events that can occur in various tumor types. Specifically, NTRK-rearranged sarcoma has been observed in pediatric mesenchymal tumors and, to a lesser extent, in adult mesenchymal tumors like fibrosarcoma. Recently, NTRK-rearranged uterine sarcoma (US) has been identified as a rare entity characterized by constitutive activation or overexpression of the TRK receptor, which plays a role in cell proliferation and differentiation.

Prediction of breast cancer Invasive Disease Events using transfer learning on clinical data as image-form.

Background And Objective: Detecting patients at high risk of occurrence of an Invasive Disease Event after a first diagnosis of breast cancer, such as recurrence, distant metastasis, contralateral tumor and second tumor, could support clinical decision-making processes in the treatment of this malignancy. Though several machine learning models analyzing both clinical and histopathological information have been developed in literature to address this task, these approaches turned out to be unsuitable for describing this problem.

Methods: In this study, we designed a novel artificial intelligence-based approach which converts clinical information into an image-form to be analyzed through Convolutional Neural Networks.

Stroke thrombectomy in the elderly: A propensity score matched study on a nationwide real-world registry.

Introduction: Data on safety and efficacy of endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) for acute ischemic stroke in older patients are limited and controversial, and people aged 80 or older were under-represented in randomized trials. Our aim was to assess EVT effect for ischemic stroke patients aged ⩾80 at a nationwide level.

Patients And Methods: The cohort included stroke patients undergoing EVT from the Italian Registry of Endovascular Treatment in Acute Stroke (IRETAS).