Publications by authors named "Rath L"

Mountain forests provide not only wood as a raw material but also numerous ecosystem services, such as protection against natural hazards, recreation and carbon sequestration, and they are important hosts for biodiversity. To manage these forests efficiently and in a target-oriented manner, both forest management planning and efficient harvesting operations are required. However, in most cases these two aspects are handled independently from each other.

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Background: The relationship between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and multiple sclerosis (MS) relapse and disease progression remains unclear. Previous studies are limited by small sample sizes and most lack a propensity-matched control cohort.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of COVID-19 infection on MS disease course with a large propensity-matched cohort.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Cladribine (Mavenclad®) is an oral treatment for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), but its effects on the immune system were previously unclear.
  • - A Phase IV study with 41 RRMS patients showed that cladribine significantly reduced the count of certain monocytes and altered levels of cytokines, notably increasing CCL2 at week 1 post-treatment.
  • - The study found that cladribine also affects the P2X7 receptor's activity, highlighting a new action mechanism that suggests further research into its potential use against other forms of MS and neurodegenerative diseases.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic raised concern amongst clinicians that disease-modifying therapies (DMT), particularly anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and fingolimod, could worsen COVID-19 in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). This study aimed to examine DMT prescribing trends pre- and post-pandemic onset.

Methods: A multi-centre longitudinal study with 8,771 participants from MSBase was conducted.

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Background: In Australia, tixagevimab/cilgavimab 150 mg/150 mg was a government-funded pre-exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) and other neuroimmunological conditions (pwNIc) treated with anti-CD20 antibodies or sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor modulators were eligible.

Objective: To analyse the roll-out, uptake and real-world efficacy of tixagevimab/cilgavimab in the prevention and severity of COVID-19. To assess compliance with uptake depending on the location of delivery.

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Background And Objectives: The impact of immunomodulatory therapies on the risk of cervical pre-cancer and invasive cancer development is important for the health and safety of women with multiple sclerosis (wwMS). We investigate the risk of cervical abnormalities in wwMS treated with disease-modifying therapies (DMTs).

Methods: This is a multicenter cohort study with data collected from 1998 to 2019 in Victoria, Australia.

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Objectives: Collaborative care (CC) has demonstrated effectiveness for improving late-life depression in primary care, but clinics offering this service can find it challenging to address unmet social needs that may be contributing to their patients' depression. Clinics may benefit from better coordination and communication with community-based organizations (CBO) to strengthen depression treatment and to address unmet social needs. We evaluated the feasibility of adding a CBO to enhance standard collaborative care and the impact of such partnered care on older adults.

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Ocrelizumab is an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (mAb) that has been shown in phase 3 clinical trials to reduce relapses and disease progression in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Prior to the approval of ocrelizumab, rituximab, a chimeric anti-CD20 mAb was used to treat MS. Rituximab is still used to treat MS in many countries outside of Australia and remains mainstay of treatment of many non-MS neuroimmunological and systemic inflammatory diseases.

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Objective: Studies of families' experiences with caregiving to older adults most often focus on overall burden and stress. Yet, caregiving is also a type of relationship, and the onset of caregiving can contribute to relationship strain between care partners. Despite implications for both care partners, little is known about how caregivers cope with caregiving relationship strain.

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Background: While depression is a leading cause of poor health, less than half of older adults receive adequate care. Inequities in both access and outcomes are even more pronounced for socially disadvantaged older adults. The collaborative care model (CCM) has potential to reduce this burden through community-based organizations (CBOs) who serve these populations.

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Decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) is increasingly used in a wide range of regenerative medicine applications and may also offer the potential to support injured myocardium. Here, we evaluated the myocardial gene expression pattern after myocardial infarction (MI) in a standardized rodent LAD-ligation model with and without ventricular stabilization with a customized, cardiac dECM-based scaffold (cdECM). MI was induced in male Wistar rats by standard LAD-ligation and confirmed 14 days post-intervention by echocardiographic parameters (FAS<40%).

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Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurological condition of increasing prevalence. Many people living with MS will trial various alternative therapies, including changed patterns of eating, to try to gain control over their condition. New clinical guidelines advise reducing the time between first clinical symptoms and treatment.

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Purpose: There are only a few case reports and case series that investigated combined laparoscopic or robotic surgery for simultaneous prostate and kidney cancer. In this study, we want to close a gap in existing research to assess the feasibility and oncological outcome of combined open prostatectomy and kidney surgery.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients who underwent a combined open prostatectomy and either a partial or complete nephrectomy from 2013 to 2020.

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Aim: Effects of parental obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) on the development of children as well as the resulting need for help were to be investigated in a qualitative study.

Methods: Using guided interviews, n = 15 adult children of parents with OCD were retrospectively interviewed about their childhood experiences. The recordings were transcribed and evaluated by means of content analysis.

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The COVID-19 Pandemic affected P-12 educators around the world, including an emergency move to remote instruction, inclusion of new technology tools to teach at a distance, and in many cases technology mandates for instruction. In the present study, we examine educators' self-reported survey responses about technology use during face to face and online instruction during the COVID-19 Pandemic. We use SAMR, a framework used to understand degrees of technology integration in teaching, as a way to interpret educators' responses and consider the ways that educators reported their use of technology in their face to face and online teaching.

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Background: People with multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunologic disorders (herein referred to as patients) are increasingly treated with infusible monoclonal antibodies. This rise in demand has placed increased loads on current infusion services and mandates careful strategic planning. This study examined patient preferences for the timing and location of infusions and their association with demographic and disease variables to facilitate patient-focused strategic planning.

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Basic guidelines are necessary for international networking in nursing. This article outlines the benefits of and strategies for networking, highlights the social and behavioral considerations of social networking, and presents potential guidelines for further discourse.

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Aims: To retrospectively assess factors associated with John Cunningham virus (JCV) seroconversion in natalizumab-treated patients.

Background: Natalizumab is highly effective for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), but its use is complicated by opportunistic JCV infection. This virus can result in progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).

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Background: Family planning and pregnancy decisions are key considerations in the management of women with multiple sclerosis (MS), who are typically diagnosed between the ages of 20-40 years. Despite a strong evidence base that pregnancy is not harmful for women with MS, many knowledge gaps remain. These include: best management strategies through pregnancy in the era of highly effective disease-modifying therapies (DMT); foetal risks associated with DMT exposure or in relation to breastfeeding; knowledge base around the use of assisted reproductive technologies; the long-term impact of pregnancy on disease outcomes, as well as the impact of long-term DMT use on women's health and cancer risk.

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Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical features associated with benign histopathology of Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) category 4 and 5 lesions.

Materials And Methods: Between March 2015 and November 2020, 1161 patients underwent mpMRI/Ultrasound-fusion-guided prostate biopsy (FBx) and concurrent 12-core systematic prostate biopsy (SBx) at the Department of Urology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany. 848/ 1161 (73%) patients presented with either PI-RADS 4 or 5 index lesion and were retrospectively evaluated.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic challenges multiple sclerosis services to be innovative in delivering infusible therapies. To reduce time in clinical settings, and potential staff or space losses, we implemented rapid infusion protocols for selected patients.

Objective: To analyse the rate of infusion related reactions and patient experience of rapid infusions of natalizumab and ocrelizumab.

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Importance: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is usually diagnosed in women during their childbearing years. Currently, no consensus exists on whether pregnancy can delay the first episode of demyelination or clinically isolated syndrome (CIS).

Objective: To investigate the association of pregnancy with time to CIS onset.

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Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) of the prostate and mpMRI-guided biopsy have proved to be a valuable part of the diagnostic pathway for prostate cancer. This review reports on the current results in terms of clinical performance of these diagnostic tools and their role in clinical decision-making.

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Background And Objective: The global COVID-19 pandemic creates an obvious acute health care resourcing and response problem. The different timing of pandemic peak in geographically distinct locations creates a short window of response opportunity. Rapid dissemination of medical information from early affected areas to later ones is therefore crucial to optimise planning.

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