Cardiovascular outcomes of SGLT-2 inhibitors' subtypes in type 2 diabetes; an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Introduction: The effects of Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors on cardiac outcomes, cardiovascular mortality (CVM), and all-cause mortality (ACM) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients have been reported heterogeneously in different studies.

Methods: PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Scholar databases were searched with relevant MeSH terms from January 1, 2010, to November 14, 2023. The study used Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

Short-Term Outcomes of a Novel Non-Screw Based Expandable Posterior Interbody Fusion Cage.

Background: Lumbar interbody fusion is a well-established surgical technique for treating various lumbar degenerative pathologies. Expandable cages have been introduced to allow for insertion via the confined access and to improve disc height restoration, although concerns about the stability of the screw-based cages in the expanded state remain a concern. This study aims to evaluate the short-term clinical and radiographic outcomes of a novel nonscrew-based expandable transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion cage.

A recurrent typical angina pectoris without any finding in coronary angiography: Microvascular angina.

Key Clinical Message: Microvascular angina (MVA) can present with recurrent chest pain and normal coronary angiography. Recognizing MVA is crucial as it significantly impacts patient morbidity and mortality. Early diagnosis and management with antianginal medications are essential for improving outcomes and quality of life.

Unexpected Grave's-induced acute myocardial infarction in a young female, a literature review based on a case report.

Introduction: Myocardial ischemia can occur due to several causes, which result in an imbalance between the supply and demand of oxygen to cardiac muscles. One potential reason for this condition is the overwork of the heart due to hyperstimulated thyroid function.

Case Presentation: The patient was a 36-year-old woman who presented with left-sided chest pain, dyspnea, palpitation, and tremor.

Gastroesophageal Disease and Environmental Exposure: A Systematic Review.

Environmental exposure-associated disease is an active area of study, especially in the context of increasing global air pollution and use of inhalants. Our group is dedicated to the study of exposure-related inflammation and downstream health effects. While many studies have focused on the impact of inhalants on respiratory sequelae, there is growing evidence of the involvement of other systems including autoimmune, endocrine, and gastrointestinal.

Pipeline for Planning and Execution of Transcranial Ultrasound Neuromodulation Experiments in Humans.

Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is an emerging non-invasive neuromodulation technique capable of manipulating both cortical and subcortical structures with high precision. Conducting experiments involving humans necessitates careful planning of acoustic and thermal simulations. This planning is essential to adjust for bone interference with the ultrasound beam's shape and trajectory and to ensure TUS parameters meet safety requirements.

Relationship between facet joint osteoarthritis and lumbar paraspinal muscle atrophy: a cross-sectional study.

Objective: The paraspinal muscles play an essential role in the stabilization of the lumbar spine. Lumbar paraspinal muscle atrophy has been linked to chronic back pain and degenerative processes within the spinal motion segment. However, the relationship between the different paraspinal muscle groups and facet joint osteoarthritis (FJOA) has not been fully explored.

Connecting the dots: Sensory cueing enhances functional connectivity between pre-motor and supplementary motor areas in Parkinson's disease.

People with Parkinson's disease often exhibit improvements in motor tasks when exposed to external sensory cues. While the effects of different types of sensory cues on motor functions in Parkinson's disease have been widely studied, the underlying neural mechanism of these effects and the potential of sensory cues to alter the motor cortical activity patterns and functional connectivity of cortical motor areas are still unclear. This study aims to compare changes in oxygenated haemoglobin, deoxygenated haemoglobin and correlations among different cortical regions of interest during wrist movement under different external stimulus conditions between people with Parkinson's disease and controls.

Importance of the lumbar paraspinal muscles on the maintenance of global sagittal alignment after lumbar pedicle subtraction osteotomy.

Objective: There are limited data about the influence of the lumbar paraspinal muscles on the maintenance of sagittal alignment after pedicle subtraction osteotomy (PSO) and the risk factors for sagittal realignment failure. The authors aimed to investigate the influence of preoperative lumbar paraspinal muscle quality on the postoperative maintenance of sagittal alignment after lumbar PSO.

Methods: Patients who underwent lumbar PSO with preoperative lumbar MRI and pre- and postoperative whole-spine radiography in the standing position were included.

In vivo and ex vivo gene therapy for neurodegenerative diseases: a promise for disease modification.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs), including AD, PD, HD, and ALS, represent a growing public health concern linked to aging and lifestyle factors, characterized by progressive nervous system damage leading to motor and cognitive deficits. Current therapeutics offer only symptomatic management, highlighting the urgent need for disease-modifying treatments. Gene therapy has emerged as a promising approach, targeting the underlying pathology of diseases with diverse strategies including gene replacement, gene silencing, and gene editing.

Human immunodeficiency virus infection is associated with greater risk of pneumonia and readmission after cardiac surgery.

Objective: Human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV+) is associated with a 2-fold increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Increasingly, patients who are HIV + are being evaluated to undergo cardiac surgery. Current risk-adjusted scoring systems, including the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality score, fail to stratify HIV + risk.

SuperMap algorithm: an efficient, safe and accurate modality for mapping and eliminating challenging cardiac arrhythmias.

Even with the development of advanced catheter-based mapping systems, there remain several challenges in the electrophysiological evaluation and elimination of atrial arrhythmias. For instance, atrial tachycardias with irregular rates cannot be reliably mapped by systems that require stability in order to sequentially gather data points to be organized thereafter. Separately, these arrhythmias often arise following initial ablation for atrial fibrillation, posing logistic challenges.

Convection-Enhanced Drug Delivery: Experimental and Analytical Studies of Infusion Behavior in an In Vitro Brain Surrogate.

Convection-enhanced drug delivery (CED) directly infuses drugs with a large molecular weight toward target cells as a therapeutic strategy for neurodegenerative diseases and brain cancers. Despite the success of many previous in vitro experiments on CED, challenges still remain. In particular, a theoretical predictive model is needed to form a basis for treatment planning, and developing such a model requires well-controlled injection tests that can rigorously capture the convective (advective) and diffusive transport of an infusate.

Evaluation of urinary trace element levels in patients with opioid use disorder undergoing methadone treatment in western Iran.

The monitoring of essential and toxic elements in patients with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) undergoing methadone treatment (MT) is important, and there is limited previous research on the urinary levels of these elements in MT patients. Therefore, the present study aimed to analyze certain elements in the context of methadone treatment compared to a healthy group. In this study, patients with opioid use disorder undergoing MT (n = 67) were compared with a healthy group of companions (n = 62) in terms of urinary concentrations of some essential elements (selenium (Se), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), calcium (Ca)) and toxic elements (lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), and chromium (Cr)).

The Relationship of Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers and Cognitive Performance in Frontotemporal Dementia.

Objective: Currently available literature on the relationships between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers and cognitive performance in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is very limited and inconclusive. In this study, we investigated the association of cognition, as measured with Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), with CSF levels of total tau (t-tau), phosphorylated tau at threonine 181 (p-tau), and amyloid β 1-42 (Aβ1-42) in a group of patients with FTD and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study with participants selected from the electronic records of patients seen at Yale New Haven Hospital's Memory Clinic, CT, USA.

The correlation between the CT angiographic pulmonary artery obstructive index and clinical data in patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism.

Purpose: The potentially fatal consequences of pulmonary embolism emphasize the need for more effective diagnostic methods. The Qanadli obstruction index has been described as a convenient tool for risk stratification to determine and quantify the degree of obstruction. This study aimed to assess the correlations between the Qanadli index with clinical and paraclinical findings (D-dimer, troponin, and echocardiographic findings) in patients with pulmonary embolism.

Examining the Role of Paraspinal Musculature in Postoperative Disability After Lumbar Fusion Surgery for Degenerative Spondylolisthesis.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis of prospectively enrolled patients.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between paraspinal muscle (PM) atrophy and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) improvement after spinal fusion surgery for degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis.

Background: Atrophy of the PM is linked to multiple spinal conditions, sagittal malalignment, and increased postoperative complications.

Regulatory Non-coding RNAs Involved in Oxidative Stress and Neuroinflammation: An Intriguing Crosstalk in Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the accumulation of α-synuclein and the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Although the molecular bases for PD development are not fully recognized, extensive evidence has suggested that the development of PD is strongly associated with neuroinflammation. It is noteworthy that while neuroinflammation might not be a primary factor in all patients with PD, it seems to be a driving force for disease progression, and therefore, exploring the role of pathways involved in neuroinflammation is of great importance.

Treatment of a calcaneal unicameral bone cyst by percutaneous CT-guided cement injection using a double-needle technique: A case report.

Simple bone cysts (SBCs) are benign cavitary lesions that most commonly affect adolescent males in the first 2 decades of life. They are mainly asymptomatic but can manifest with pain or pathological fractures. Despite numerous proposed methods for managing calcaneal SBCs, the optimal approach toward these lesions remains controversial.

Association of IFITM1 Promoter Methylation with Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

Background: During viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2, epigenetic changes within the promoter region of the immune system genes would possibly occur and have an effect on the immune system response as well as disease outcome. We aimed to evaluate and compare the methylation level of the IFITM1 gene promoter in different stages of COVID-19 disease with a healthy control group.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 75 COVID-19 patients (25 mild, 25 severe, and 25 critical in addition to 25 age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers) have been included.

Exploring obesity, physical activity, and digital game addiction levels among adolescents: A study on machine learning-based prediction of digital game addiction.

Primary study aim was defining prevalence of obesity, physical activity levels, digital game addiction level in adolescents, to investigate gender differences, relationships between outcomes. Second aim was predicting game addiction based on anthropometric measurements, physical activity levels. Cross-sectional study design was implemented.