A practical guide to the diagnosis and management of suspected Non-tuberculous Mycobacterial Pulmonary Disease (NTM-PD) in the United Kingdom.

Non-tuberculous Mycobacterial Pulmonary Disease (NTM-PD) is a chronic disease characterised by progressive inflammatory lung damage due to infection by non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Global prevalence of NTM-PD is generally low but is rising, likely due to a combination of increased surveillance, increasing multimorbidity and improved diagnostic techniques. Most disease is caused by Mycobacterium avium complex species.

Novel multiple Z-score models for detection of coronary artery dilation: application in Kawasaki disease.

Background: This study aims to develop Z-Score models to normalize measurements of three coronary arteries and enhance the diagnosis of Kawasaki disease (KD) in children from newborns to 10 years old. Developing a reliable Z-Score model is challenging, as some existing models fail the normality test. Overcoming these challenges is crucial for improving KD diagnosis.

Evaluation and improvement of nursing undergraduates' informatics competencies using a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making model.

Background: Nursing staff need to be constantly exposed to information systems at work and encounter patients who share medical data obtained from the internet; this was widely observed during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Hence, nursing staff should have the necessary skills and education that can help them develop nursing students' informatics competencies. However, research on assessing and improving nursing students' informatics competencies remains scarce.

Liver assistive devices in acute liver failure: Current use and future directions.

Acute liver failure (ALF) is a rare syndrome where rapid deterioration of liver function occurs after an acute insult in a patient without prior chronic liver disease and leads to jaundice, hepatic encephalopathy (HE), and oftentimes multiorgan failure (MOF). At this time, the only definitive treatment for ALF is LT but some patients, particularly APAP-induced ALF patients, may have ongoing regenerative capacity of the liver and may not require LT with ongoing supportive management. As a result, extracorporeal liver support (ECLS) has been a topic of interest both as a bridge to LT and as a bridge to spontaneous recovery and aims to remove damaging toxins that further aggravate liver failure, stimulate regeneration of the liver, and improve pathophysiologic consequences of liver failure.

Advanced strategies for intensive care management of acute liver failure.

Acute liver failure (ALF) is defined as the loss of hepatic function in conjunction with hepatic encephalopathy and coagulopathy. There is histological evidence of profound hepatocyte damage. If it is not aggressively managed, ALF can be fatal within a few days.

Definitions, etiopathogenesis and epidemiology of ALF.

Acute liver failure (ALF) is a rare but preventable cause of acute hepatic dysfunction which is associated with significant mortality, unless treated appropriately. There are significant regional variations in the etiologies of ALF globally and this determines the outcomes of the disease as well as the long-term survival in patients receiving liver transplantation for management. Improvements in understanding of disease pathophysiology and critical care medicine have led to better outcomes over the last few decades.

Prognostic models in acute liver failure-historic evolution and newer updates "prognostic models in acute liver failure".

Acute liver failure (ALF) is a rare and dynamic syndrome occurring as a sequela of severe acute liver injury (ALI). Its mortality ranges from 50% to 75% based on the aetiology, patients age and severity of encephalopathy at admission. With improvement in intensive care techniques, transplant-free survival in ALF has improved over time.

Radiation Segmentectomy and Modified Radiation Lobectomy for Unresectable Early-Stage Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma.

Purpose: To validate the safety and efficacy of radiation segmentectomy (RS) and modified radiation lobectomy (mRL) in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) and to evaluate long-term outcomes in patients with unresectable, early-stage iCCA.

Materials And Methods: A single-institution, retrospective study of patients with unresectable, solitary iCCA without extrahepatic disease or vascular involvement (stage I) treated with RS and mRL was performed. Fifteen patients met inclusion criteria (median age 65.

Facilitators and Barriers to Values Discussions Following LVAD Implantation: Perspectives from Diverse Patients and Family Caregivers.

Background Delivering care that is responsive to who or what is most important to patients and family caregivers is a key aspect of quality care, yet it remains unclear how clinicians can best support individuals in expressing their personal values. We aimed to describe patient- and family caregiver-identified facilitators and barriers to engaging in values discussions with clinicians following implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). Methods and results Using a qualitative descriptive approach, patients with an LVAD and their caregivers participated in one-on-one semi structured interviews and self-reported sociodemographics (January 2023-July 2023).

Changing Paradigms in Asthma Management.

Asthma is a complex clinical syndrome characterized by airway inflammation that can cause variable, usually reversible airway obstruction and bronchial hyperreactivity. This illness has a spectrum from intermittent to persistent that has mild, medium or severe intensity. As our understanding of the underling inflammatory pathway grows, so too does our catalogue of advanced treatments (such as monoclonal antibodies), opening the path for treatment individually curated for patients.

Development and validation of an explainable model of brain injury in premature infants: A prospective cohort study.

Background: Preterm brain injury (PBI) is a prevalent complication in preterm infants, leading to the destruction of critical structural and functional brain connections and placing a significant burden on families. The timely detection of PBI is of paramount importance for the prevention and treatment of the condition. However, the absence of specific clinical manifestations in the early stages of PBI renders it susceptible to misdiagnosis and missed diagnoses.

Machine learning-based predictive models for perioperative major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with stable coronary artery disease undergoing noncardiac surgery.

Background And Objective: Accurate prediction of perioperative major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) is crucial, as it not only aids clinicians in comprehensively assessing patients' surgical risks and tailoring personalized surgical and perioperative management plans, but also for information-based shared decision-making with patients and efficient allocation of medical resources. This study developed and validated a machine learning (ML) model using accessible preoperative clinical data to predict perioperative MACEs in stable coronary artery disease (SCAD) patients undergoing noncardiac surgery (NCS).

Methods: We collected data from 9171 adult SCAD patients who underwent NCS and extracted 64 preoperative variables.

Efficacy of Ruxolitinib in the management of chronic GVHD.

Objectives: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is a potentially curative treatment for hematological diseases, with success rates improving due to advancements in conditioning regimens and new anti-graft versus host disease (GVHD) drugs. Ruxolitinib, an oral selective Janus kinase (JAK) 1 and 2 inhibitor has been used to mitigate the effects of various inflammatory and myeloproliferative syndromes, given the JAK kinase pathway's central role in cytokine signaling during inflammatory and immune processes. In this study we aimed to assess ruxolitinib's efficacy in patients with chronic GVHD (cGVHD).

Comparative Efficacy and Safety of Different Low-Dose Platelet Inhibitors in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease: A Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis.

Objective: The optimal low-dose antiplatelet agents in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) had not been determined. The objective of this study was to compare the impact of different low-dose antiplatelet agents on cardiovascular outcomes and bleeding risks in patients with CHD.

Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP, WanFang Data, and China Biology Medicine.

Prevalence and multiple-level determinants of smoking among women in the workforce in China.

Introduction: To describe the prevalence of smoking among Chinese women in the workforce and to investigate its potential associated factors from a multi-level perspective.

Methods: The study was based on data collected from the "Asia Best Workplace" program in 2021. We obtained a sample of 6,260 women in the workforce and collected the data using a self-administered questionnaire, including occupational characteristics, utilization of workplace health services, and mental health status.

Subtypes of cognitive impairment in cerebellar disease identified by cross-diagnostic cluster-analysis: results from a German multicenter study.

Background: Cognitive and neuropsychiatric impairment, known as cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS), may be present in cerebellar disorders. This study identified distinct CCAS subtypes in cerebellar patients using cluster analysis.

Methods: The German CCAS-Scale (G-CCAS-S), a brief screening test for CCAS, was assessed in 205 cerebellar patients and 200 healthy controls.

Visual quality of life in NMOSD and MOGAD: profiles, dynamics and associations with ageing and vision.

Objective: In this multicentric study, we were interested in the vision-related quality of life and its association with visual impairment in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD) in comparison to multiple sclerosis (MS) and healthy controls.

Methods: We analysed extracted data from the German NEMOS registry including National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ) scores, high and low contrast visual acuity (HCVA, LCVA), visually evoked potentials (VEP) and the scores for the expanded disability status scale (EDSS) and other neurological tests which assessed their disease-related impairment. The mean follow-up time of our patients was 1.

Metastasis-directed stereotactic radiotherapy in patients with breast cancer: results of an international multicenter cohort study.

Metastasis-directed therapy (MDT) for oligometastatic breast cancer (≤ 5 metastases) has shown little effect in specific scenarios of randomized trials. Therefore, we aimed to assess outcomes after metastasis-directed stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) in various clinical scenarios. We conducted an international retrospective cohort study in thirteen centers including breast cancer patients receiving SRT to any metastatic site.

AGA Clinical Practice Update on Management of Portal Vein Thrombosis in Patients With Cirrhosis: Expert Review.

Description: Portal vein thromboses (PVTs) are common in patients with cirrhosis and are associated with advanced portal hypertension and mortality. The treatment of PVTs remains a clinical challenge due to limited evidence and competing risks of PVT-associated complications vs bleeding risk of anticoagulation. Significant heterogeneity in PVT phenotype based on anatomic, host, and disease characteristics, and an emerging spectrum of therapeutic options further complicate PVT management.

The HPV prevention and control program in Poland: progress and the way forward.

This review assesses Poland's activities in preventing and managing human papillomavirus (HPV)-related diseases, summarizing information from the 2023 HPV Prevention and Control Board meeting. Progress in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention identifies opportunities to strengthen control of cervical cancer. Poland's national HPV vaccination program, launched in June 2023, initially achieved suboptimal coverage.

Minimum carbon dioxide is a key predictor of the respiratory health of pigs in climate-controlled housing systems.

Background: Respiratory disease is an economically important disease in the swine industry. Housing air quality control is crucial for maintaining the respiratory health of pigs. However, maintaining air quality is a limitation of current housing systems.

Cardiac myxoma with high standardized uptake value of FDG-PET-CT in the right ventricular outflow tract.

Background: Cardiac myxoma rarely occurs in the right ventricle, and as is a benign disease, it rarely shows high positivity on 18F fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT).

Case Presentation: We present herein the case of a 77-year-old woman who was found to have a heart murmur during a routine health checkup. Further examination revealed a 27-mm tumor in the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) and moderate aortic valve stenosis.

A rapid deployment valve option for failing Medtronic Freestyle full root: a single centre experience.

Background: There are several high-risk treatment options for valve failure of a biological full root replacement. When tailoring the best treatment option for the patient, implantation of a rapid deployment valve (RDV) should be considered.

Case Presentation: Six patients presented with aortic regurgitation in a full root Freestyle bioprosthesis.

Best practices in the laboratory diagnosis, prognostication, prediction, and monitoring of Graves' disease: role of TRAbs.

Graves' disease (GD) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by activation of the TSH receptor by stimulatory autoantibodies (TSH Receptor Antibodies, or TRAbs), leading to unregulated thyroid hormone production. Diagnosis is largely based on the typical clinical picture and laboratory thyroid panel. Establishment of elevated serum levels of TRAbs by competitive binding assay or cell-binding assay has its unique role in diagnosis and management of GD, especially in the differential diagnosis, therapy selection, prognostication, evaluation of thyroid function during pregnancy, peri-conceptional and neonatal thyroid workup, and in certain special situation.

Mixed-effects neural network modelling to predict longitudinal trends in fasting plasma glucose.

Background: Accurate fasting plasma glucose (FPG) trend prediction is important for management and treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), a globally prevalent chronic disease. (Generalised) linear mixed-effects (LME) models and machine learning (ML) are commonly used to analyse longitudinal data; however, the former is insufficient for dealing with complex, nonlinear data, whereas with the latter, random effects are ignored. The aim of this study was to develop LME, back propagation neural network (BPNN), and mixed-effects NN models that combine the 2 to predict FPG levels.