Comparison of optimization algorithms for automated method development of gradient profiles.

Optimization algorithms play an important role in method development workflows for gradient elution liquid chromatography. Their effectiveness has not been evaluated for chromatographic method development using standardized comparisons across factors such as sample complexity, chromatographic response functions (CRFs), gradient complexity, and application type. This study compares six optimization algorithms - Bayesian optimization (BO), differential evolution (DE), a genetic algorithm (GA), covariance-matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES), random search, and grid search - for the development of gradient elution LC methods.

Generating realistic data through modeling and parametric probability for the numerical evaluation of data processing algorithms in two-dimensional chromatography.

Background: Comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography generates complex data sets, and numerous baseline correction and noise removal algorithms have been proposed in the past decade to address this challenge. However, evaluating their performance objectively is currently not possible due to a lack of objective data.

Result: To tackle this issue, we introduce a versatile platform that models and reconstructs single-trace two-dimensional chromatography data, preserving peak parameters.

Patient-clinician collaboration in making care fit: A qualitative analysis of clinical consultations in diabetes care.

Objective: To confirm described dimensions of making care fit and explore how patients and clinicians collaborate to make care fit in clinical practice.

Methods: As part of an ongoing study, we audiotaped and transcribed patient-clinician consultations in diabetes care. We purposively selected consultations based on participants' demographical, biomedical and biographical characteristics.

Interindividual variation in ovarian reserve after gonadotoxic treatment in female childhood cancer survivors - a genome-wide association study: results from PanCareLIFE.

Objective: To discover new variants associated with low ovarian reserve after gonadotoxic treatment among adult female childhood cancer survivors using a genome-wide association study approach.

Design: Genome-wide association study.

Setting: Not applicable.

Prognostic Models in Nephrology: Where Do We Stand and Where Do We Go from Here? Mapping Out the Evidence in a Scoping Review.

Prognostic models can strongly support individualized care provision and well-informed shared decision making. There has been an upsurge of prognostic research in the field of nephrology, but the uptake of prognostic models in clinical practice remains limited. Therefore, we map out the research field of prognostic models for kidney patients and provide directions on how to proceed from here.

Computer-driven optimization of complex gradients in comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography.

Method development in comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC × LC) is a complicated endeavor. The dependency between the two dimensions and the possibility of incorporating complex gradient profiles, such as multi-segmented gradients or shifting gradients, renders method development by "trial-and-error" time-consuming and highly dependent on user experience. In this work, an open-source algorithm for the automated and interpretive method development of complex gradients in LC × LC-mass spectrometry (MS) was developed.

Health-related quality of life and symptom burden in patients on haemodialysis.

Background: Patients on haemodialysis (HD) generally experience poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and a broad range of physical and mental symptoms, but it is unknown whether this differs between younger and older patients. We aimed to describe the trajectories of HRQoL and symptom burden of patients <70 and ≥70 years old and to assess the impact of symptom burden on HRQoL.

Methods: In incident Dutch HD patients, HRQoL and symptoms were measured with the 12-item Short Form Health Survey and Dialysis Symptom Index.

Capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection to account for system-induced gradient deformation in liquid chromatography.

The time required for method development in gradient-elution liquid chromatography (LC) may be reduced by using an empirical modelling approach to describe and predict analyte retention and peak width. However, prediction accuracy is impaired by system-induced gradient deformation, which can be especially prominent for steep gradients. As the deformation is unique to each LC instrument, it needs to be corrected for if retention modelling for optimization and method transfer is to become generally applicable.

A Policy Call to Address Rare Kidney Disease in Health Care Plans.

Despite a large number of people globally being affected by rare kidney diseases, research support and health care policy programs usually focus on the management of the broad spectrum of CKD without particular attention to rare causes that would require a targeted approach for proper cure. Hence, specific curative approaches for rare kidney diseases are scarce, and these diseases are not treated optimally, with implications on the patients' health and quality of life, on the cost for the health care system, and society. There is therefore a need for rare kidney diseases and their mechanisms to receive the appropriate scientific, political, and policy attention to develop specific corrective approaches.

Latent class analysis-based subgroups and response to corticosteroids in hospitalised community-acquired pneumonia patients: a validation study.

https://bit.ly/3O5eaxz.

Sex Differences in Blood Pressure and Potential Implications for Cardiovascular Risk Management.

Background: Accurate blood pressure (BP) measurement is critical for optimal cardiovascular risk management. Age-related trajectories for cuff-measured BP accelerate faster in women compared with men, but whether cuff BP represents the intraarterial (invasive) aortic BP is unknown. This study aimed to determine the sex differences between cuff BP, invasive aortic BP, and the difference between the 2 measurements.

Survival of patients who opt for dialysis versus conservative care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Non-dialytic conservative care (CC) has been proposed as a treatment option for patients with kidney failure. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims at comparing survival outcomes between dialysis and CC in studies where patients made an explicit treatment choice.

Methods: Five databases were systematically searched from origin through 25 February 2021 for studies comparing survival outcomes among patients choosing dialysis versus CC.

Community-acquired pneumonia subgroups and differential response to corticosteroids: a secondary analysis of controlled studies.

Background: Latent class analysis (LCA) has identified subgroups with meaningful treatment implications in acute respiratory distress syndrome. We performed a secondary analysis of three studies to assess whether LCA can identify clinically distinct subgroups in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and whether the treatment effect of adjunctive corticosteroids differs between subgroups.

Methods: LCA was performed on baseline clinical and biomarker data from the Ovidius trial (n=304) and the Steroids in Pneumonia (STEP) trial (n=727), both randomised controlled trials investigating adjunctive corticosteroid treatment in CAP, and the observational TripleP cohort (n=201).

Duplications Are Associated With Progressive Muscular Atrophy, but Not With Multifocal Motor Neuropathy and Primary Lateral Sclerosis.

Objective: To assess the association between copy number (CN) variation in the survival motor neuron () locus and multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN), progressive muscular atrophy (PMA), and primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) susceptibility and to determine the association of and CN with MMN, PMA, and PLS disease course.

Methods: In this monocenter study, we used multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification to determine and CN in Dutch patients with MMN, PMA, and PLS and controls. We stratified clinical parameters for and CN.

Home monitoring reduced short stay admissions in suspected COVID-19 patients: COVID-box project.

https://bit.ly/39vvngH

Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Assessment of the Heart Rate Corrected QT Interval Using a Mobile Electrocardiogram Device.

Background: Heart rate-corrected QT interval (QTc) prolongation, whether secondary to drugs, genetics including congenital long QT syndrome, and/or systemic diseases including SARS-CoV-2-mediated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), can predispose to ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Currently, QTc assessment and monitoring relies largely on 12-lead electrocardiography. As such, we sought to train and validate an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled 12-lead ECG algorithm to determine the QTc, and then prospectively test this algorithm on tracings acquired from a mobile ECG (mECG) device in a population enriched for repolarization abnormalities.

Adjunctive treatment with oral dexamethasone in non-ICU patients hospitalised with community-acquired pneumonia: a randomised clinical trial.

Background: Adjunctive intravenous corticosteroid treatment has been shown to reduce length of stay (LOS) in adults hospitalised with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We aimed to assess the effect of oral dexamethasone on LOS and whether this effect is disease severity dependent.

Methods: In this multicentre, stratified randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, immunocompetent adults with CAP were randomly assigned (1:1 ratio) to receive oral dexamethasone (6 mg once daily) or placebo for 4 days in four teaching hospitals in the Netherlands.

Identifying Isolated Systolic Hypertension From Upper-Arm Cuff Blood Pressure Compared With Invasive Measurements.

Isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) is the most common form of hypertension and is highly prevalent in older people. We recently showed differences between upper-arm cuff and invasive blood pressure (BP) become greater with increasing age, which could influence correct identification of ISH. This study sought to determine the difference between identification of ISH by cuff BP compared with invasive BP.

Association of White Matter Lesions and Outcome After Endovascular Stroke Treatment.

Objective: To investigate the association between white matter lesions (WML) and functional outcome in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and the modification of the effect of endovascular treatment (EVT) by WML.

Methods: We used data from the Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial of Endovascular Treatment for Acute Ischemic Stroke in the Netherlands (MR CLEAN) trial and assessed severity of WML on baseline noncontrast CT imaging (NCCT; n = 473) according to the Van Swieten Scale. Poststroke functional outcome was assessed with the modified Rankin Scale.

Determinants of the Presence and Size of Intracranial Aneurysms in the General Population: The Rotterdam Study.

Background And Purpose: The prevalence of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) in the adult population is ≈3%. Rupture of an intracranial aneurysm can have devastating consequences, which emphasizes the importance of identification of potentially modifiable determinants for the presence and size of UIAs. Our aim was to study the association of a broad spectrum of potential determinants with the presence and size of UIAs in a general adult population.

Explaining Health Disparities between Heterosexual and LGB Adolescents by Integrating the Minority Stress and Psychological Mediation Frameworks: Findings from the TRAILS Study.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents experience elevated levels of internalizing problems and use more substances than heterosexual adolescents. The minority stress and psychological mediation framework are complementary theoretical frameworks that were developed to explain these disparities. However, limited empirical research has integrated both frameworks to study health disparities between heterosexual and LGB adolescents.

Influence of Age on Upper Arm Cuff Blood Pressure Measurement.

Blood pressure (BP) is a leading global risk factor. Increasing age is related to changes in cardiovascular physiology that could influence cuff BP measurement, but this has never been examined systematically and was the aim of this study. Cuff BP was compared with invasive aortic BP across decades of age (from 40 to 89 years) using individual-level data from 31 studies (1674 patients undergoing coronary angiography) and 22 different cuff BP devices (19 oscillometric, 1 automated auscultation, 2 mercury sphygmomanometry) from the Invasive Blood Pressure Consortium.

Nationwide analysis of hospital variation in preoperative radiotherapy use for rectal cancer following guideline revision.

Introduction: The revised Dutch colorectal cancer guideline (2014), led to an overall decrease in preoperative radiotherapy (RT) use. This study evaluates hospital variation in RT use for resectable rectal cancer and the influence of guideline revision, including the nationwide impact of changing RT application on short term outcomes.

Methods: Data of surgically resected rectal cancer patients registered in the Dutch ColoRectal Audit were extracted between 2011 and 2017.