Cell-free tumor DNA analysis in advanced or metastatic breast cancer patients: mutation frequencies, testing intention, and clinical impact.

Background: Circulating cell-free tumor DNA (ctDNA) provides a non-invasive approach for assessing somatic alterations. The German PRAEGNANT registry study aims to explore molecular biomarkers and investigate their integration into clinical practice. In this context, ctDNA testing was included to understand the motivations of clinicians to initiate testing, to identify somatic alterations, and to assess the clinical impact of the results obtained.

Time to evaluation and characteristics of patients evaluated at epilepsy centers within an integrated health care delivery system.

Objective: Rapid patient referral to epilepsy centers may facilitate subsequent disease-modifying surgical and non-surgical treatments. Delays of 15-18 years have been reported from time of epilepsy diagnosis to surgical evaluation in some settings, though patterns for timely guideline-concordant referrals within integrated care models are not well known and could inform strategies for optimizing guideline-concordant access.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of 1088 patients undergoing epilepsy center evaluation from January 1, 2008 through June 30, 2023 in a Northern California integrated healthcare delivery system (IDS) with a Level 4 Epilepsy Center.

First Case Report of Uterine Leiomyosarcoma Diagnosed After Transcervical Fibroid Ablation.

Uterine fibroids are benign monoclonal neoplasms of the myometrium, representing the most common female pelvic neoplasms globally. Treatments may be invasive, such as hysterectomy and myomectomy, non-invasive, such as medical therapy or focused ultrasound, or minimally invasive, such as transcervical radiofrequency ablation (TFA). To date, more than 12,000 women have been treated worldwide using TFA with the Sonata System.

Decision-making in borderline hip dysplasia and concomitant femoracetabular impingement syndrome: using a discrete choice experiment to explore patient preferences.

Decision-making regarding surgical treatment of patients showing radiographic evidence of femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) in the setting of borderline hip dysplasia (BHD) remains a challenge as there is no consensus on treatment in current literature. When medical evidence is unclear, understanding patient preferences becomes particularly important in deciding the optimal treatment for each patient. The purpose of this study was to measure the patient-determined importance of factors surrounding surgical treatment of FAIS in BHD.

CZ CELLxGENE Discover: a single-cell data platform for scalable exploration, analysis and modeling of aggregated data.

Hundreds of millions of single cells have been analyzed using high-throughput transcriptomic methods. The cumulative knowledge within these datasets provides an exciting opportunity for unlocking insights into health and disease at the level of single cells. Meta-analyses that span diverse datasets building on recent advances in large language models and other machine-learning approaches pose exciting new directions to model and extract insight from single-cell data.

Single-cell spatial mapping reveals alteration of cell type composition and tissue microenvironment during early colorectal cancer formation.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States. Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is a hereditary syndrome that raises the risk of developing CRC, with total colectomy as the only effective prevention. Even though FAP is rare (0.

Late-Onset Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome Following Knee Arthroscopy in a Retrospective Cohort.

Hip-knee coupling is a well-documented phenomenon, and interventions to one joint can alter biomechanics at the other. The purpose of this study was to investigate if knee surgery is associated with later onset of femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS). A retrospective chart review was conducted regarding patients at a single academic institution who underwent hip arthroscopy for FAIS between January 2011-October 2021.

Modulating the immunodominance hierarchy of immunoglobulin germline-encoded structural motifs targeting the influenza hemagglutinin stem.

Antibodies targeting epitopes through germline-encoded motifs can be found in different individuals. While these public antibodies are often beneficial, they also pose hurdles for subdominant antibodies to emerge. Here, we use transgenic mice that reproduce the human IGHV1-6901 germline-encoded antibody response to the conserved stem epitope on group 1 hemagglutinin (HA) of influenza A virus to show that this germline-endowed response can be overridden by a subdominant yet cross-group reactive public antibody response.

Innovations in Hidradenitis Suppurativa.

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin condition characterized by painful, recurrent abscesses, inflammatory nodules, and draining tunnels. Biologic and small molecule therapeutics are effective for treatment of moderate-to-severe HS. The field of HS is rapidly growing with numerous ongoing clinical trials exploring novel agents.

Hip Flexor Muscle Activation During Common Rehabilitation and Strength Exercises.

The iliopsoas muscle plays an essential role in lumbopelvic and hip anterior stability, which is particularly important in the presence of limited osseous acetabular coverage anteriorly as in hip dysplasia and/or hip micro-instability. The purpose of this systematic review is to (1) describe iliopsoas activation levels during common rehabilitation exercises and (2) provide an evidence-based exercise progression for strengthening the iliopsoas based on electromyography (EMG) studies. In total, 109 healthy adult participants ranging from ages 20 to 40 were included in nine studies.

Rates of positive vs negative studies in the spine literature.

Background: Accuracy in the interpretation of data, and publication of studies regardless of outcomes are vital to the development of the scientific literature.

Objective: To determine the proportion of studies in the spine literature that report positive results.

Study Design: Review article of studies published in nine major spine, pain, and physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) journals from January 1, 2018-December 31, 2022.

Theoretical and experimental analysis of the modulated phase grating X-ray interferometer.

X-ray grating interferometry allows for the simultaneous acquisition of attenuation, differential-phase contrast, and dark-field images, resulting from X-ray attenuation, refraction, and small-angle scattering, respectively. The modulated phase grating (MPG) interferometer is a recently developed grating interferometry system capable of generating a directly resolvable interference pattern using a relatively large period grating envelope function that is sampled at a pitch that is small enough that X-ray spatial coherence can be achieved by using a microfocus X-ray source or G0 grating. We present the theory of the MPG interferometry system for a 2-dimensional staggered grating, derived using Fourier optics, and we compare the theoretical predictions with experiments we have performed with a microfocus X-ray system at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, LSU.

Ramadan fasting observance is associated with decreased sleep duration, increased daytime sleepiness and insomnia symptoms among student-athletes.

Objective: To examine the relationships between Ramadan fasting observance (RFO) and sleep-wake patterns, daytime sleepiness, and insomnia levels in student-athletes.

Methods: Sleep was measured using wrist-actigraphy in 25 semi-professional student-athletes (mean ± SD; age = 22 ± 2 years, height = 182.0 ± 5.

Modeling free tumor growth: Discrete, continuum, and hybrid approaches to interpreting cancer development.

Tumor growth dynamics serve as a critical aspect of understanding cancer progression and treatment response to mitigate one of the most pressing challenges in healthcare. The in silico approach to understanding tumor behavior computationally provides an efficient, cost-effective alternative to wet-lab examinations and are adaptable to different environmental conditions, time scales, and unique patient parameters. As a result, this paper explored modeling of free tumor growth in cancer, surveying contemporary literature on continuum, discrete, and hybrid approaches.

Accuracy of ultrasound-guided iliopsoas tendon injection after total hip arthroplasty: a retrospective observational study.

Purpose: To describe and characterize the accuracy and benefit of a technique for performing ultrasound-guided needle placement for iliopsoas peritendon or bursa injections as an alternative method to fluoroscopic guidance.

Materials And Methods: Patients with a history of total hip arthroplasty who were referred by their orthopedic surgeon for iliopsoas peritendon or bursa corticosteroid injection for iliopsoas impingement syndrome between June 2017 and December 2019 were eligible for inclusion. Of these patients, 19 received a total of 26 ultrasound-guided needle placement followed by confirmatory fluoroscopic guidance prior to injection.

Inhibition of human cytomegalovirus entry into mucosal epithelial cells.

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) causes serious developmental disabilities in newborns infected in utero following oral acquisition by the mother. Thus, neutralizing antibodies in maternal saliva have potential to prevent maternal infection and, consequently, fetal transmission and disease. Based on standard cell culture models, CMV entry mediators (and hence neutralizing targets) are cell type-dependent: entry into fibroblasts requires glycoprotein B (gB) and a trimeric complex (TC) of glycoproteins H, L, and O, whereas endothelial and epithelial cell entry additionally requires a pentameric complex (PC) of glycoproteins H and L with UL128, UL130, and UL131A.