Impact of disease duration and surgical intervention on arousal networks in temporal lobe epilepsy.

Objective: Epilepsy is a common neurological disease affecting nearly 1% of the global population, and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common type. Patients experience recurrent seizures and chronic cognitive deficits that can impact their quality of life, ability to work, and independence. These cognitive deficits often extend beyond the temporal lobe and are not well understood.

Fertility in transgender and gender diverse people: systematic review of the effects of gender-affirming hormones on reproductive organs and fertility.

Background: Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people seek gender-affirming care at any age to manage gender identities or expressions that differ from their birth gender. Gender-affirming hormone treatment (GAHT) and gender-affirming surgery may alter reproductive function and/or anatomy, limiting future reproductive options to varying degrees, if individuals desire to either give birth or become a biological parent.

Objective And Rationale: TGD people increasingly pursue help for their reproductive questions, including fertility, fertility preservation, active desire for children, and future options.

Identifying Research Priorities for Cognition in CKD: A Delphi Study.

Background: Cognition is a research priority for people living with chronic kidney disease (CKD), but identification of critical research questions is lacking. This study aimed to determine which cognition-related research questions are most important to CKD stakeholders.

Methods: A modified Delphi technique with 3 survey rounds was used.

NK cell exhaustion in Wilson's disease revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing predicts the prognosis of cholecystitis.

Metabolic abnormalities associated with liver disease have a significant impact on the risk and prognosis of cholecystitis. However, the underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated. Here, we investigated this issue using Wilson's disease (WD) as a model, which is a genetic disorder characterized by impaired mitochondrial function and copper metabolism.

Aberrant Insertion of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament on the Lateral Meniscus: A Case Report.

Case: A 16-year-old woman presented with acute on chronic knee pain and instability following a twisting injury. The tibial insertion of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) was nonvisualized on magnetic resonance imaging. A cord-like ACL, originating from the lateral intercondylar notch and inserting smoothly into the anterior horn of the intact lateral meniscus, was found on arthroscopy.

Prevalence of accessory navicular in Japanese children: A cross-sectional study using ultrasound-Katsuragi Integrated Defense for Locomotive Syndrome in children study.

The accessory navicular (AN) is an accessory bone located on the posteromedial aspect of the navicular tuberosity that can cause pain following overuse or trauma, particularly during childhood. However, the detailed epidemiological characteristics of AN in children have not been well studied. This study aimed to clarify the prevalence of AN and painful AN among Japanese children by examining the characteristics according to sex and age.

Diverse and highly differentiated lava suite in Jezero crater, Mars: Constraints on intracrustal magmatism revealed by Mars 2020 PIXL.

The Jezero crater floor features a suite of related, iron-rich lavas that were examined and sampled by the Mars 2020 rover Perseverance, and whose textures, minerals, and compositions were characterized by the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL). This suite, known as the Máaz formation (fm), includes dark-toned basaltic/trachy-basaltic rocks with intergrown pyroxene, plagioclase feldspar, and altered olivine and overlying trachy-andesitic lava with reversely zoned plagioclase phenocrysts in a K-rich groundmass. Feldspar thermal disequilibrium textures indicate that they were carried from their crustal staging area.

Expanded non-invasive prenatal testing offers better detection of fetal copy number variations but not chromosomal aneuploidies.

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical performance of expanded non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT-plus) and compare its effectiveness in screening for chromosomal aneuploidies with that of NIPT.

Methods: Screening results, confirmatory invasive testing results, and follow-up data from pregnant women who underwent either NIPT (6792 cases) or NIPT-Plus (5237 cases) testing at Luohe Central Hospital, China, from January 2019 to June 2023 were collected. The positive predictive value (PPV), sensitivity, specificity, and other indicators for different types of chromosomal abnormalities in NIPT/NIPT-plus screening were calculated.

Variants in the SOX9 transactivation middle domain induce axial skeleton dysplasia and scoliosis.

SOX9 is a crucial transcriptional regulator of cartilage development and homeostasis. Dysregulation of is associated with a wide spectrum of skeletal disorders, including campomelic dysplasia, acampomelic campomelic dysplasia, and scoliosis. Yet how variants contribute to the spectrum of axial skeletal disorders is not well understood.

Evaluation of MRX PT DOAC as a new screening method for detecting interferences in thrombophilia analyses.

Background: Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) can interfere with coagulation analyses, causing erroneous results such as false-positive lupus anticoagulant and false-normal antithrombin, threatening patient safety when overlooked. A test using a prothrombin time quotient method to detect DOAC presence in plasma samples is now commercially available, the MRX PT DOAC, with the result expressed as Clot Time Ratio (CTR).

Objectives: Evaluate the ability of MRX PT DOAC to identify interfering apixaban or rivaroxaban concentrations, identify non-interfering or interfering patient samples, and detect whether a patient is on DOAC treatment.

Neonatal Nutrition and Brain Structure at 7 Years in Children Born Very Preterm.

Importance: Neonatal protein intake following very preterm birth has long lasting effects on brain development. However, it is uncertain whether these effects are associated with improved or impaired brain maturation.

Objective: To assess the association of neonatal protein intake following very preterm birth with brain structure at 7 years of age.

α-Glucosidase inhibitory activities of polyphenols from Mesua ferrea L. leaves.

Mesua ferrea L. is used in Ayurvedic and Thai medicine for treating various diseases, including diabetes. This study aimed to isolate and identify the bioactive constituents from M.

Drug-Induced Liver Injury Associated With Emerging Cancer Therapies.

Targeted therapies and immunotherapies have shown great promise as best-in-class treatments for several cancers with respect to efficacy and safety. While liver test abnormalities are rather common in patients treated with kinase inhibitors or immunotherapy, events of severe hepatotoxicity in these patients are rare in comparison with those associated with chemotherapeutics. The underlying mechanisms and risk factors for severe hepatotoxicity with novel oncology therapies are not well understood, complicating the drug-induced liver injury (DILI) risk assessment in the preclinical and clinical phases of drug development.

Pollination efficiency and the evolution of sex allocation - diminishing returns matter.

Immobility of flowering plants requires them to engage pollen vectors to outcross, introducing considerable inefficiency in the conversion of pollen production into sired seeds. Whether inefficiencies influence the evolution of the relative resource allocation to female and male functions has been debated for more than 40 years. Whereas early models suggested no effect, negative interspecific relations of mean pollen production and pollen : ovule ratios to the proportion of removed pollen that is exported to stigmas (pollen-transfer efficiency) indicate otherwise.

Enhancing surface energy and characterizing optical properties of ultra-high translucency zirconia via an innovative heat treatment process.

Purpose: Ultra-high translucency zirconia (UT-Zr) is known for its high esthetic quality; however, its inert surface results in low hydrophilicity and surface energy (SE). To address this limitation, this study proposes an innovative zirconia heat treatment process (ZHTP) and aims to evaluate the effects of ZHTP on the surface characteristics of UT-Zr, offering a novel and practical approach for surface pretreatment in dental practice.

Material And Methods: The plate-shaped UT-Zr samples were fabricated.

Impact of Experimental Congenital Toxoplasmosis on the Thyroid Gland: Histopathological and Immunobiochemical Indices Assessment.

Purpose: The thyroid gland is one of the most vital endocrine organs. It is responsible for the synthesis and secretion of hormones principally triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). These hormones play a significant role in the functions and the metabolism of the body.

Surgical outcomes after trabeculotomy for primary congenital glaucoma.

Purpose: To investigate outcomes after trabeculotomy in Japanese patients with primary congenital glaucoma (PCG), and to identify risk factors for multiple glaucoma surgery procedures.

Study Design: Retrospective observational study.

Methods: Surgical outcomes were investigated in Japanese patients with PCG who underwent their first glaucoma surgery at Hiroshima University Hospital between January, 2006, and December, 2021.

Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms (BPSD) in Alzheimer's Disease (AD): Development and Treatment.

Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), such as agitation, apathy, and psychosis, are highly prevalent and have a significant impact on patients and their care partners. The neurobiology of BPSD involves a complex interplay of structural brain changes and alterations in the neurotransmitter system. Various genetic and plasma biomarkers have also been studied.

Phenotypic variability in progressive encephalopathy with brain atrophy and thin corpus callosum: insights from two families.

The cytoskeleton, composed of microtubules, intermediate filaments and actin filaments is vital for various cellular functions, particularly within the nervous system, where microtubules play a key role in intracellular transport, cell morphology, and synaptic plasticity. Tubulin-specific chaperones, including tubulin folding cofactors (TBCA, TBCB, TBCC, TBCD, TBCE), assist in the proper formation of α/β-tubulin heterodimers, essential for microtubule stability. Pathogenic variants in these chaperone-encoding genes, especially TBCD, have been linked to Progressive Encephalopathy with Brain Atrophy and Thin Corpus Callosum (PEBAT, OMIM #604,649), a severe neurodevelopmental disorder.

Clinical, laboratory, and molecular characteristics of patients with spondyloenchondrodysplasia: a case series study.

Unlabelled: Spondyloenchondrodysplasia (SPENCD) is a rare genetic disorder characterized with skeletal dysplasia, immune dysregulation, and neurological impairment. Patients diagnosed with SPENCD at a single pediatric hematology center were included in the study. The patients' clinical characteristics, symptoms at presentation, imaging and laboratory results, and genetic analysis results were collected retrospectively from their files.

Trichomoniasis in Men: A Neglected Factor in Male Infertility?

Purpose: This study is aimed to detect the frequency of trichomoniasis, a sexually transmitted infection caused by an anaerobic protozoan Trichomonas vaginalis, in men referred to the Fertility and Infertility Research Center Hamadan University of Medical Sciences.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a group of 197 male volunteers who sought medical attention for issues related to infertility participated. The urine and semen samples were collected in sterile conditions.

Novel anatomical variations of the internal thoracic artery: implications for coronary artery bypass grafting surgery and autologous breast reconstruction.

The unique structure and location of the internal thoracic artery make it an ideal conduit for coronary artery bypass grafting surgery and autologous breast reconstruction. Variants with different characteristics have the potential to impact surgical success. This report presents a female body donor with a novel bilateral variation of the internal thoracic artery.

ATM Expression and Activation in Ataxia Telangiectasia Patients with and without Class Switch Recombination Defects.

Background: Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase plays a critical role in DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair. Ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) patients exhibit abnormalities in immunoglobulin isotype expression and class switch recombination (CSR). This study investigates the role of residual ATM kinase expression and activity in the severity of A-T disease.

Patients with antiphospholipid antibodies preferentially seek health information from physicians: a cross-sectional online patient quantitative survey.

Little is known about how patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) or antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) access and trust health information. This research aimed to: describe the sources of information most frequently accessed/trusted by patients with APS/aPL; identify if individuals with APS/aPL perceived their health had been negatively impacted by various sources and document obstacles to accessing health information. Patients meeting Revised Sapporo Criteria for APS or with ≥1 positive aPL on ≥2 occasions were recruited to an online survey regarding their health information use at diagnosis and within 6 months preceding survey completion.