Neuromonitoring-guided anesthesia depth versus four-minute anesthesia-to-stimulation time interval in electroconvulsive therapy for depressive disorders - A single-blinded, prospective, randomized and controlled study.

Background: Anesthesia depth influences seizure quality in patients undergoing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). EEG-based neuromonitoring has been shown to detect adequate anesthesia depth for ECT. Anesthesia depth-guided ECT management may therefore be a reliable alternative to the predetermined anesthesia-to-stimulation time interval.

Vivifying Knee Rehabilitation: SquatEmUp, a Serious Game Utilizing the Wii Fit Balance Board.

Knee injuries are a common concern in orthopedic and sports medicine, often requiring extensive rehabilitation to restore function and alleviate pain. The rehabilitation process can be long and challenging, necessitating innovative approaches to engage and motivate patients effectively. Serious games have emerged as a promising tool in rehabilitation, offering an interactive and enjoyable way to perform therapeutic exercises.

Establishing a Pediatric Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Research Review Process.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) research is increasing, and there is a need for a more standardized approach for methodological and ethical review of this research. A supplemental review process for EDI-related human subject research protocols was developed and implemented at a pediatric academic medical center (AMC). The goal was to ensure that current EDI research principles are consistently used and that the research aligns with the AMC's declaration on EDI.

Detecting androgen receptor (AR), AR variant 7 (AR-V7), prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) gene expression in CTCs and plasma exosome-derived cfRNA in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) by integrating the VTX-1 CTC isolation system with the QIAGEN AdnaTest.

Background: Therapies for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) include targeting the androgen receptor (AR) with androgen receptor inhibitors (ARIs) and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). Having the ability to detect AR, AR splice variant 7 (AR-V7), or PSMA in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) or circulating exosomal cell-free RNA (cfRNA) could be helpful to guide selection of the appropriate therapy for each individual patient. The Vortex Biosciences VTX-1 system is a label-free CTC isolation system that enables the detection of the expression of multiple genes in both CTCs and exosomal cfRNA from the same blood sample in patients with mCRPC.

Serum Selenium-Binding Protein 1 (SELENBP1) in Burn Injury: A Potential Biomarker of Disease Severity and Clinical Course.

Oxidative stress, systemic inflammation, and metabolic derangements are hallmarks of burn pathophysiology. Severely burned patients are highly susceptible to infectious complications. Selenium-binding protein 1 (SELENBP1) modulates intracellular redox homeostasis, and elevated serum concentrations have been associated with adverse clinical outcomes in trauma patients.

Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection of a Giant Rectal Adenoma Manifesting as McKittrick-Wheelock Syndrome.

McKittrick-Wheelock syndrome (MKWS) is an uncommon clinical manifestation of large, villous, epithelial lesions of the distal colon and rectum. Excessive secretion of electrolyte-rich mucus from these lesions leads to secretory diarrhea, electrolyte disorders and acute renal failure. Several cases of MKWS have been reported since its initial description in 1954.

A digital health game to prevent opioid misuse and promote mental health in adolescents in school-based health settings: Protocol for the PlaySmart game randomized controlled trial.

Adolescents who engage in non-opioid substance misuse and/or experience mental health symptoms are at greater risk of misusing opioids and/or developing opioid use disorder. Adolescence is a critical developmental period to both prevent the initiation of opioid misuse and target mental health. To date, there are no digital health games targeting both conditions.

An optimized IgG-based B7-H3xCD3 bispecific antibody for treatment of gastrointestinal cancers.

T cell-based immunotherapy has revolutionized oncological treatment. However, many patients do not respond to treatment, and long-term remissions remain rare, particularly in gastrointestinal cancers like colorectal cancer (CRC). B7-H3 is overexpressed in multiple cancer entities including CRC on both tumor cells and tumor vasculature, the latter facilitating influx of effector cells into the tumor site upon therapeutic targeting.

The impact of dexamethasone as a perineural additive to ropivacaine for PECS II blockade in patients undergoing unilateral radical mastectomy - A prospective, randomized, controlled and double-blinded trial.

Study Objective: Dexamethasone is commonly used as an adjuvant to local anesthetics to prolong duration of peripheral nerve blocks with minimal side-effects. The present study investigates the efficacy of dexamethasone added to ropivacaine 0.2% as compared to ropivacaine 0.

Targeting Metabolic Pathways in Kidney Cancer: Rationale and Therapeutic Opportunities.

Alterations in cellular sugar, amino acid and nucleic acid, and lipid metabolism, as well as in mitochondrial function, are a hallmark of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The activation of oncogenes such as hypoxia-inducible factor and loss of the von Hippel-Lindau function and other tumor suppressors frequently occur early on during tumorigenesis and are the drivers for these changes, collectively known as "metabolic reprogramming," which promotes cellular growth, proliferation, and stress resilience. However, tumor cells can become addicted to reprogrammed metabolism.

Does a brief functional assessment in the emergency department predict outcomes of patients admitted with heart failure? The FASTER-HF study.

Background: Evaluation of patients with acute decompensated heart failure includes symptom review, biomarker measurement and comorbidity assessment. Early objective evaluation of functional status is generally not performed.

Aim: To investigate whether a simple low-impact functional assessment and measurement of sarcopenia would be safe, feasible and predictive of hospital length of stay and all-cause 30-day hospital readmission.

Use of Pharmacy Quality Measures to Enhance Value-Based Performance Within the Military Health System.

Introduction: As the healthcare system shifts from fee-for service toward value-driven healthcare, interest has grown in medication-related quality metrics to evaluate quality and value within the healthcare system. While the Defense Health Agency (DHA) has taken steps to align healthcare quality measures across the enterprise, the extent to which DHA utilizes pharmacy quality measures (PQMs) or evaluates the quality of direct and purchased pharmacy care is unknown.

Materials And Methods: A comparison was made between existing PQMs utilized by DHA and all measures published and endorsed by the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA), a recognized, PQM standard-setting organization.

Peri-operative brachial plexus injury following self-positioning for stereotactic radiofrequency ablation.

A 71-year-old woman with a known accessory cervical rib and distinct scoliosis was scheduled for elective, percutaneous stereotactic radiofrequency ablation of a non-resectable intrahepatic cholangiocellular carcinoma. Patient positioning and fixation using a Bluebag fixation system (Medical Intelligence, Schwabmünchen, Germany) and a dedicated adjustable armrest were customised in the patient while awake. In order to provide safe conditions for mask ventilation and tracheal intubation, the patient was returned to standard supine positioning without changing the position of the armrest.

Radiation-induced malignancies after intensity-modulated versus conventional mediastinal radiotherapy in a small animal model.

A long-standing hypothesis in radiotherapy is that intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) increases the risk of second cancer due to low-dose exposure of large volumes of normal tissue. Therefore, young patients are still treated with conventional techniques rather than with modern IMRT. We challenged this hypothesis in first-of-its-kind experiments using an animal model.

Time on Therapy for at Least Three Months Correlates with Overall Survival in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma.

With 15 drugs currently approved for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) and even more combination regimens with immunotherapy on the horizon, there remains a distinct lack of molecular biomarkers for therapeutic efficacy. Our study reports on real-world clinical outcomes of mRCC patients from a tertiary academic medical center treated with empirically selected standard-of-care therapy. We utilized the Stanford Renal Cell Carcinoma Database (RCCD) to report on various outcome measures, including overall survival (OS) and the median number of lines of targeted therapies received from the time of metastatic diagnosis.

Correlating tumor metabolic progression index measured by serial FDG PET-CT, apparent diffusion coefficient measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and blood genomics to patient's outcome in advanced colorectal cancer: the CORIOLAN study.

Background: Metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) may present various behaviours that define different courses of tumor evolution. There is presently no available tool designed to assess tumor aggressiveness, despite the fact that this is considered to have a major impact on patient outcome.

Methods/design: CORIOLAN is a single-arm prospective interventional non-therapeutic study aiming mainly to assess the natural tumor metabolic progression index (TMPI) measured by serial FDG PET-CT without any intercurrent antitumor therapy as a prognostic factor for overall survival (OS) in patients with mCRC.

Evaluation of an antimicrobial surgical glove to inactivate live human immunodeficiency virus following simulated glove puncture.

Background: Percutaneous injuries associated with cutting instruments, needles, and other sharps (eg, metallic meshes, bone fragments, etc) occur commonly during surgical procedures, exposing members of surgical teams to the risk for contamination by blood-borne pathogens. This study evaluated the efficacy of an innovative integrated antimicrobial glove to reduce transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) following a simulated surgical-glove puncture injury.

Methods: A pneumatically activated puncturing apparatus was used in a surgical-glove perforation model to evaluate the passage of live HIV-1 virus transferred via a contaminated blood-laden needle, using a reference (standard double-layer glove) and an antimicrobial benzalkonium chloride (BKC) surgical glove.

Glycolytic metabolism and tumour response to fractionated irradiation.

Background And Purpose: To study whether pre-therapeutic lactate or pyruvate predict for tumour response to fractionated irradiation and to identify possible coherencies between intermediates of glycolysis and expression levels of selected proteins.

Materials And Methods: Concentrations of lactate, pyruvate, glucose and ATP were quantified via bioluminescence imaging in tumour xenografts derived from 10 human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) lines. Tumours were irradiated with 30 fractions within 6 weeks.

Standardization of needlestick injury and evaluation of a novel virus-inhibiting protective glove.

Rubber surgical gloves worn as a barrier to prevent contamination from body fluids offer relative protection against contamination through direct percutaneous injuries involving needles, scalpel blades or bone fragments. To determine the main experimental parameters influencing the volume of blood transmitted by a hollow-bore needle (worst case scenario) during an accidental puncture, we designed an automatic puncture apparatus. Herpes simplex type 1 virus (HSV1), a model for enveloped viruses, was used as a 'marker' in an in-vitro gelatine model.

Virus-inhibiting surgical glove to reduce the risk of infection by enveloped viruses.

Needle puncture and other accidents that occur during surgery and other procedures may lead to viral infections of medical personnel, notably by hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), now that hepatitis B can be prevented by vaccination. A new surgical glove called G-VIR, which contains a disinfecting agent for enveloped viruses, has been developed. Herpes simplex type 1 (HSV) was used as a standard enveloped virus in both in vitro and in vivo tests of the virucidal capacity of the glove.

Relevance of underlying disease and bacterial vacA and cagA status on the efficacy of Helicobacter pylori eradication.

Aim: To study the effects of Helicobacter pylori associated diseases and the bacterial vacA and cagA statuses on the efficacy of H. pylori eradication.

Methods: A prospective study in a consecutive series of outpatients of a gastroenterological institution and of a primary practice.

Diagnosis and management of acute pancreatitis.

Many aspects of acute pancreatitis treatment have been controversial, but with the refinement of contrast enhanced computed tomography, advances have been made towards quicker diagnosis and treatment of this condition. The management of this disease process for complication, and determination of cause so those future occurrences may be prevented.