Publications by authors named "Somani S"

Purpose: The present study examined masseteric vestibular evoked myogenic potential (mVEMP) responses in children and compared these results with those of adults, using both air- and bone-conduction modes of stimulation.

Method: Fifteen children and fifteen adults with hearing thresholds below 15 dB HL were considered for the study. Ipsilateral 500-Hz narrow-band chirp (NB CE-chirp) evoked mVEMP responses were elicited via a zygomatic montage through both air- and bone-conduction modes of stimulation.

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Background: The characterization of hemorrhage following acute stroke intervention has largely been CT-based. We sought to compare MRI- and CT-based scoring of hemorrhage after acute endovascular therapy (EVT) applying the Heidelberg Bleeding Classification (HBC) to assess inter-modal agreement and quantify inter-rater agreement.

Methods: Consecutive acute stroke patients were included in this retrospective study if they: i) had MRI and CT ≤12 hours of each other OR ii) had CT bracketed by MRI pre- and post-CT [i.

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Objectives: To explore the implementation of a provincial virtual paediatric consulting service, Child Health Advice in Real-Time Electronically (CHARLiE), integrated into the paediatric on-call schedule in Northwestern British Columbia.

Methods: Healthcare providers in Northwestern British Columbia responded to a survey (n = 72) and participated in focus groups (n = 35) and key informant interviews (n = 4) to share their experiences engaging in a healthcare model that incorporated virtual paediatric consultants in lieu of in-person local paediatrician coverage over a 28-month period. Survey data was analyzed using descriptive statistics.

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  • The study investigates the relationship between stress and prevalent oral mucosal conditions: leukoplakia, oral lichen planus (OLP), and oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF), highlighting a lack of prior research in this area.
  • A total of 280 patients aged 35-60 were analyzed for serum cortisol levels and psychological stress using blood samples and a questionnaire, revealing that OLP patients exhibited the highest cortisol levels, indicating more significant stress, anxiety, and depression.
  • The findings suggest that stress is a contributing factor to the development and worsening of OSMF and OLP, with high serum cortisol levels serving as a marker for psychological stress in these conditions.*
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  • The study aimed to measure healthcare use related to dry eye symptoms after cataract surgery and identify risk factors for these symptoms.
  • Conducted on 1,074 patients in Toronto, it found that 18.1% experienced nonroutine follow-ups due to dry eye issues, particularly among those with moderate to severe preoperative dry eye scores.
  • Key risk factors for developing postoperative dry eye included higher preoperative dry eye scores, female sex, undergoing bilateral surgeries, and using femtosecond laser-assisted techniques, raising concerns about current preoperative treatment effectiveness.
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  • This study investigates whether simpler models using standard ECG measurements can effectively detect left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) compared to complex deep learning methods.
  • Analyzing a dataset of nearly 41,000 ECGs, researchers found that a random forest model and a logistic regression model both achieved high accuracy in detecting LVSD, with performance comparable todeep learning models.
  • The findings suggest that simpler ECG models are not only effective but also easier to implement and interpret in clinical settings, making them potentially more suitable for widespread use.
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The interleukin (IL)-23 pathway is a pathogenic driver in psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease. Currently, no oral therapeutics selectively target this pathway. JNJ-77242113 is a peptide targeting the IL-23 receptor with high affinity (K: 7.

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  • Segmenting CT is essential for clinical practices like personalized cardiac ablation, but traditional machine learning methods often require large labeled datasets which are difficult to gather.
  • The article introduces the DOKEN algorithm, which uses domain knowledge to automatically label a small training set, enabling high-performance ML segmentation without the need for extensive data.
  • In tests, the DOKEN-enhanced nnU-Net model showed impressive segmentation results, achieving a high Dice score of 96.7% and demonstrating performance comparable to expert manual segmentation, thus validating its efficacy in real-world applications.
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  • - Globally, obesity is on the rise, leading to serious health issues, including heart disease, and is a significant financial burden on healthcare systems, costing over $200 billion a year.
  • - This study utilized advanced AI to analyze over 390,000 Reddit discussions about GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), highlighting a wide interest in topics like weight loss results, side effects, accessibility, and psychological benefits.
  • - The analysis revealed that public sentiment around GLP-1 RAs is mostly neutral to positive, suggesting these findings could help in monitoring side effects not seen in trials and addressing drug shortages.
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Background: Compass Rose™, a case management tool developed by Epic®, was designed to track various patient coordination tasks, outreaches, and outcomes. This report describes the implementation of Compass Rose™ within an internal health-system specialty pharmacy (HSSP) and changes in care coordination metrics before and after implementation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to discuss the implementation of Compass Rose™.

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Acid catalysed reductive etherification of -propargyl amino alcohols for the stereoselective synthesis of -2,5/2,6-disubstituted morpholines and -2,6/2,7-disubstituted oxazepanes has been developed. Mechanistic studies revealed that terminal alkynols gave morpholines a 6- hydroalkoxylation-isomerization-reduction cascade. Interestingly, an alkyne hydration-cyclization-reduction sequence is found to be involved in the formation of oxazepanes from alkyl substituted internal alkynols.

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Accurate atomistic modeling of the interactions of a chromatography resin with a solute can inform the selection of purification conditions for a product, an important problem in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. We present a molecular dynamics simulation-based approach for the qualitative prediction of interaction sites (specificity) and retention times (affinity) of a protein for a given chromatography resin. We mimicked the resin with an unrestrained ligand composed of the resin headgroup coupled with successively larger fragments of the agarose backbone.

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  • This review highlights how Artificial Intelligence (AI) improves the assessment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk, opportunistic screening, and guideline adherence by analyzing both unstructured clinical and patient-generated data.
  • Recent findings indicate that AI models outperform traditional risk scores in evaluating individual ASCVD risk and can automatically detect risk markers, like coronary artery calcium (CAC), using various imaging techniques.
  • AI applications are valuable for preventing and managing ASCVD, and they can enhance patient education, but successful integration into clinical practice requires careful regulation and structured clinical pathways.
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Purpose: To investigate the safety and effectiveness of micropulse transscleral cyclophotocoagulation (MPTSCPC) in non-incisional eyes with ocular hypertension (OHT) and early, moderate, and severe primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).

Methods: Retrospective cohort study of eyes that underwent MPTSCPC from 2016 to 2019 at an outpatient clinic in Canada. Eyes were excluded if any incisional procedures, except cataract surgery, were performed prior to MPTSCPC treatment.

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  • - Coronary artery calcium (CAC) testing is important for assessing the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), but public perception of CAC and its implications for heart health decision-making are not well understood.
  • - Researchers utilized an AI model to analyze 5,606 discussions on Reddit about CAC, identifying 91 topics categorized into 14 main themes, including the influence of CAC on treatment choices and concerns over testing risks.
  • - Sentiment analysis of these discussions showed that nearly half expressed neutral or negative feelings towards CAC testing, highlighting a need for better communication and education to improve public understanding and shared decision-making in cardiovascular health.
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Introduction Stroke lesion volume on MRI or CT provides objective evidence of tissue injury as a consequence of ischemic stroke. Measurement of "final" lesion volume at 24hr following endovascular therapy (post-EVT) has been used in multiple studies as a surrogate for clinical outcome. However, despite successful recanalization, a significant proportion of patients do not experience favorable clinical outcome.

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Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of ultrasound-guided multiple injection costotransverse block (MICB) and compare it with erector spinae plane block (ESPB) for poststernotomy pain relief in pediatric cardiac surgical patients.

Design: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, comparative study.

Setting: At a single institution tertiary referral cardiac center.

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Introduction: Artificial intelligence (AI) development has led to improvements in many areas of medicine. Canada has workforce pressures in delivering cataract care. A potential solution is using AI technology that can automate care delivery, increase effectiveness and decrease burdens placed on patients and the healthcare system.

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The NLR family caspase activation and recruitment domain-containing 4 (NLRC4) inflammasome is a critical cytosolic innate immune machine formed upon the direct sensing of bacterial infection and in response to cell stress during sterile chronic inflammation. Despite its major role in instigating the subsequent host immune response, a more complete understanding of the molecular events in the formation of the NLRC4 inflammasome in humans is lacking. Here we identify Bacillus thailandensis type III secretion system needle protein (Needle) as a potent trigger of the human NLR family apoptosis inhibitory protein (NAIP)/NLRC4 inflammasome complex formation and determine its structural features by cryogenic electron microscopy.

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Gene therapy holds great promise for treating prostate cancer unresponsive to conventional therapies. However, the lack of delivery systems that can transport therapeutic DNA and drugs while targeting tumors without harming healthy tissues presents a significant challenge. This study aimed to explore the potential of novel hybrid lipid nanoparticles, composed of biocompatible zein and conjugated to the cancer-targeting ligand transferrin.

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