Patterns of Addiction in Chronic Skin Diseases: A Comparative Analysis of Addictions and Influencing Factors in Atopic Dermatitis and Psoriasis.

Addictions seem to be more frequent in atopic dermatitis and psoriasis patients than in the general population. This cross-sectional observational study comparatively evaluated substance-related and behavioural addictions in atopic dermatitis and psoriasis patients and analysed possible addiction patterns. From October 2023 to April 2024, 100 atopic dermatitis and 104 psoriasis patients at a German university hospital completed an anonymous questionnaire, including sociodemographic and health-related parameters, along with validated assessment tools for common addictions (smoking, gambling, alcohol, drugs, food, and internet).

Assessing the Comorbidity Cycle Between Psoriasis and Addiction Based on ICD Coding in the Stockholm Psoriasis Cohort.

The comorbidity cycle between psoriasis and addictions remains unclear. The study aimed to investigate the cumulative incidence of addictions in psoriasis patients and controls in the Stockholm Psoriasis Cohort (SPC). The SPC is an observational cohort study that enrolled psoriasis patients between 2001 and 2005 and matched controls using the Swedish Total Population Register.

The multifaceted nature of Egyptian mummification: Paleoradiological insights into child mummies.

In accordance with ancient Egyptian beliefs, the preservation of the body after death was an important prerequisite for the continued existence of the deceased in the afterlife. This involved application of various physical interventions and magical rituals to the corpse. Computed tomography (CT), as the gold-standard technology in the field of paleoradiology, enables deeper insights into details of artificial body preservation.

Integrating radiomics with clinical data for enhanced prediction of vertebral fracture risk.

Introduction: Osteoporotic vertebral fractures are a major cause of morbidity, disability, and mortality among the elderly. Traditional methods for fracture risk assessment, such as dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), may not fully capture the complex factors contributing to fracture risk. This study aims to enhance vertebral fracture risk prediction by integrating radiomics features extracted from computed tomography (CT) scans with clinical data, utilizing advanced machine learning techniques.

Expression quantitative trait loci influence DNA damage-induced apoptosis in cancer.

Background: Genomic instability and evading apoptosis are two fundamental hallmarks of cancer and closely linked to DNA damage response (DDR). By analyzing expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) upon cell stimulation (called exposure eQTL (eQTL)) it is possible to identify context specific gene regulatory variants and connect them to oncological diseases based on genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

Results: We isolate CD8 T cells from 461 healthy donors and stimulate them with high doses of 5 different carcinogens to identify regulatory mechanisms of DNA damage-induced apoptosis.

Safety and Low Incidence of Anaphylaxis in Performing Oral Drug and Food Challenges in Mastocytosis.

Background: Patients with mastocytosis (MC) have an increased risk of severe anaphylaxis. They report hypersensitivity reactions to drugs and food, but causality often remains questionable. Most allergy centers avoid oral challenge tests (OCT) in MC patients.

Concomitant sarcoidosis, psoriasis, and eczema - immune patterns on the skin.

Sarcoidosis is a rare and elusive chronic inflammatory disease. It can manifest itself in any organ, but preferentially affects the lungs and the skin. Our case of an elderly woman with cutaneous and pulmonary sarcoidosis presented with exacerbated itchy, scaly skin changes to our department.

Digitalising the past decades: automated ICD-10 coding of unstructured free text dermatological diagnoses.

Background: Current digital medical databases record systematically coded diagnoses, but many legacy databases are full of hand-written, free text diagnoses, which can only be meaningfully analysed after mapping them to a coding system. While diagnoses can be extracted from full medical notes with good accuracy, no algorithm using only an unstructured free text diagnosis with no additional data has been published to date.

Objectives/methods: Therefore, we sought to create an algorithm which maps hand-written German diagnoses from our clinical photography database to ICD-10 diagnosis codes, validate its output manually by dermatologists and analyse diagnosis counts over time as a proof-of-concept of its application.

Bridging the gap through telemedicine: Pilot study on the acceptance and use of teledermatology for urticaria.

Background: Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) significantly impairs patients' quality of life. Despite advances in diagnosis and therapy, treatment is still unsatisfactory. Telemedicine offers a promising solution to improve treatment.

Transforming Health Care Through Chatbots for Medical History-Taking and Future Directions: Comprehensive Systematic Review.

Background: The integration of artificial intelligence and chatbot technology in health care has attracted significant attention due to its potential to improve patient care and streamline history-taking. As artificial intelligence-driven conversational agents, chatbots offer the opportunity to revolutionize history-taking, necessitating a comprehensive examination of their impact on medical practice.

Objective: This systematic review aims to assess the role, effectiveness, usability, and patient acceptance of chatbots in medical history-taking.

Vitiligo - a disease: A position paper on stigmatization, life quality impairment and psychosocial comorbidity.

Vitiligo is a common disorder characterized by the visible loss of skin pigmentation. Non-segmental vitiligo (NSV) is the major subtype. The disease is caused by autoimmune-mediated destruction of melanocytes.

Identifying sarcoidosis trends using web search and real-world data in Sweden: a retrospective longitudinal study.

Web search data are associated with disease incidence, population interest, and seasonal variations. This study aimed to investigate seasonal and geographical variations of web search data for sarcoidosis and to explore its association with external factors and sarcoidosis incidence in Sweden. Therefore, sarcoidosis-related data from Google Ads Keyword Planer (2017-2020) were generated for Sweden according to its 21 counties.

Happiness across the borders-A cross-sectional study among patients with psoriasis and atopic dermatitis in Europe.

Background: Dermatological research has traditionally concentrated on evaluating mental comorbidities, neglecting positive concepts like happiness. Initial studies indicate that psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (AD) impair the happiness of those affected. Considering global happiness variations, this study aimed to explore the disease- and country-specific differences in disease-related quality of life and happiness, and potential influential factors on heuristic happiness among psoriasis and AD patients in Europe.

Rhekiss-The German Register for Child Wish and Pregnancies in Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases.

In pharmacoepidemiology, robust data are needed to judge the impact of drug treatment on pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and breast-fed infants. As pregnant and breastfeeding women are usually excluded from randomised clinical trials, observational studies are required. One of those data sources are pregnancy registers specifically developed to focus on certain diseases or disease groups.

Race adjustments in clinical algorithms can help correct for racial disparities in data quality.

Despite ethical and historical arguments for removing race from clinical algorithms, the consequences of removal remain unclear. Here, we highlight a largely undiscussed consideration in this debate: varying data quality of input features across race groups. For example, family history of cancer is an essential predictor in cancer risk prediction algorithms but is less reliably documented for Black participants and may therefore be less predictive of cancer outcomes.

Digital Media Usage Behavior and Its Impact on the Physician-Patient Relationship: Cross-Sectional Study Among Individuals Affected by Psoriasis in Germany.

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic skin disorder with a high burden of disease. People affected with psoriasis increasingly use the internet for health-related reasons, especially those with younger age, higher education, and higher disease severity. Despite advantages such as enhancing the individuals' knowledge with the use of digital media for health-related issues, disadvantages were also present such as quality control, and variability in the individuals' health information literacy.

Predictors of initiating biologics in the treatment of psoriasis.

Background: Biologics are among the most effective therapies for psoriasis. However, many patients are only introduced to them at advanced stages of the disease course.

Objectives: Our aim was to identify predictors of initiating biologic therapy in patients with psoriasis and compare patients initiating biologics early versus late in their disease course.