Training and validating a treatment recommender with partial verification evidence.

Background: Current clinical decision support systems (DSS) are trained and validated on observational data from the clinic in which the DSS is going to be applied. This is problematic for treatments that have already been validated in a randomized clinical trial (RCT), but have not yet been introduced in any clinic. In this work, we report on a method for training and validating the DSS core before introduction to a clinic, using the RCT data themselves.

Environmental enrichment is associated with favorable memory-related functional brain activity patterns in older adults.

Background: In humans, environmental enrichment (EE), as measured by the engagement in a variety of leisure activities, has been associated with larger hippocampal structure and better memory function. The present cross-sectional study assessed whether EE during early life (13-30 years) and midlife (30-65 years) is associated with better preserved memory-related brain activity patterns in older age.

Methods: In total, 372 cognitively unimpaired older adults (aged ≥60 years old) of the DZNE-Longitudinal Study on Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (DELCODE; DRKS00007966) were investigated.

Impact of acetylsalicylic acid on perioperative bleeding complications in deceased donor kidney transplantation.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate the perioperative outcomes and complications associated with the use of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in deceased donor kidney transplantation (KTX), with a particular focus on bleeding events.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 157 kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) who underwent KTX at Charité Berlin, Department for Urology, between February 2014 and December 2017. Patients were divided into two groups: patients with ASA in their preoperative medication (Group A, n = 59) and patients without ASA use (Group B, n = 98).

iKNOW-Supporting the counseling of women with hereditary risk of breast and ovarian cancer with digital technologies: A randomized controlled trial.

Purpose: We developed the online-based counseling tool iKNOW for women with a pathogenic germline variant in to improve risk understanding and quality of life.

Methods: With a randomized controlled trial, we investigated the efficacy of iKNOW with regard to risk understanding (primary endpoint), quality of life, risk perception, and anxiety (secondary endpoints). Self-report questionnaires were administered to  = 217 women with a pathogenic variant in before counseling (T0), immediately after (T1), 4 weeks after (T2), and 6 months after (T3).

Optimizing post-surgical outcomes: unveiling the importance of patient-reported outcomes with insights from the schulthess local shoulder arthroplasty registry.

Objective: The establishment of clinical registries is essential for the comprehensive evaluation of surgical outcomes. In 2006, the Schulthess Shoulder Arthroplasty Registry (SAR) was launched to systematically assess safety, implant longevity, functional outcomes, pain levels, quality of life, and patient satisfaction in individuals undergoing shoulder arthroplasty. This paper aims to outline the registry data and demonstrate how it is leveraged to improve clinical outcomes.

Evaluation of circulating tumor DNA as a prognostic and predictive biomarker in BRAF V600E mutated colorectal cancer-results from the FIRE-4.5 study.

The randomized FIRE-4.5 (AIO KRK0116) trial compared first-line therapy with FOLFOXIRI (folinic acid, fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan) plus either cetuximab or bevacizumab in B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase (BRAF) V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients. This study was accompanied by a prospective translational project analyzing cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in plasma to test whether ctDNA analysis may help to guide clinical treatment decision making.

Biomarkers troponin and procalcitonin in addition to CRB-65 enhance risk stratification in patients with community-acquired pneumonia.

Background: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains a leading cause of infectious disease mortality globally, necessitating intensive care unit (ICU) admission for ∼10% of hospitalised patients. Accurate prediction of disease severity facilitates timely therapeutic interventions.

Methods: Our study aimed to enhance the predictive capacity of the clinical CRB-65 score by evaluating eight candidate biomarkers: troponin T high-sensitive (TnT-hs), procalcitonin (PCT), N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide, angiopoietin-2, copeptin, endothelin-1, lipocalin-2 and mid-regional pro-adrenomedullin.

Evaluation of autologous fat grafting in the treatment of juvenile localized scleroderma with facial involvement.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of autologous fat grafting in patients with juvenile localized scleroderma with facial involvement.

Methods: We retrospectively studied patients with juvenile localized scleroderma who were followed at the Hamburg Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology at least 6 months post-operative follow-up and received at least one autologous fat transplantation for a facial lesion. Autologous fat grafting was conducted independent of disease-modifying treatment and/or disease activity.

Adjuvant immunotherapy in patients with resected gastric and oesophagogastric junction cancer following preoperative chemotherapy with high risk for recurrence (ypN+ and/or R1): European Organisation of Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) 1707 VESTIGE study.

Background: Patients with gastro-oesophageal adenocarcinoma with tumour-positive lymph nodes (ypN+) or positive surgical margins (R1) following neoadjuvant chemotherapy and resection are at high risk of recurrence. Adjuvant nivolumab is effective in oesophageal/oesophagogastric junction cancer and residual pathological disease following chemoradiation and surgery. Immune checkpoint inhibition has shown efficacy in advanced gastro-oesophageal cancer.

Cognitive reserve against Alzheimer's pathology is linked to brain activity during memory formation.

The cognitive reserve (CR) hypothesis posits that individuals can differ in how their brain function is disrupted by pathology associated with aging and neurodegeneration. Here, we test this hypothesis in the continuum from cognitively normal to at-risk stages for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) to AD dementia using longitudinal data from 490 participants of the DELCODE multicentric observational study. Brain function is measured using task fMRI of visual memory encoding.

Ecto-NOX Disulfide-Thiol Exchanger 2 (ENOX2/tNOX) Is a Potential Prognostic Marker in Primary Malignant Melanoma and May Serve as a Therapeutic Target.

With an increasing incidence of malignant melanoma, new prognostic biomarkers for clinical decision making have become more important. In this study, we evaluated the role of ecto-NOX disulfide-thiol exchanger 2 (ENOX2/tNOX), a cancer- and growth-associated protein, in the prognosis and therapy of primary malignant melanoma. We conducted a tissue microarray analysis of immunohistochemical ENOX2 protein expression and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) RNA expression analysis, as well as viability assays and Western blots of melanoma cell lines treated with the ENOX2 inhibitor phenoxodiol (PXD) and BRAF inhibitor (BRAFi) vemurafenib.

Effectiveness and efficiency of immunisation strategies to prevent RSV among infants and older adults in Germany: a modelling study.

Background: Recently, several novel RSV immunisation products that protect infants and older adults against RSV disease have been licensed in Europe. We estimated the effectiveness and efficiency of introducing these RSV immunisation strategies in Germany.

Methods: We used a Bayesian framework to fit a deterministic age-structured dynamic transmission model of RSV to sentinel surveillance and RSV-specific hospitalisation data in Germany from 2015 to 2019.

A comprehensive lifestyle index and its associations with DNA methylation and type 2 diabetes among Ghanaian adults: the rodam study.

Background: A series of modifiable lifestyle factors, such as diet quality, physical activity, alcohol intake, and smoking, may drive the rising burden of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) among sub-Saharan Africans globally. It is unclear whether epigenetic changes play a mediatory role in the associations between these lifestyle factors and T2DM. We assessed the associations between a comprehensive lifestyle index, DNA methylation and T2DM among Ghanaian adults.

Quantitative modeling of signaling in aggressive B cell lymphoma unveils conserved core network.

B cell receptor (BCR) signaling is required for the survival and maturation of B cells and is deregulated in B cell lymphomas. While proximal BCR signaling is well studied, little is known about the crosstalk of downstream effector pathways, and a comprehensive quantitative network analysis of BCR signaling is missing. Here, we semi-quantitatively modelled BCR signaling in Burkitt lymphoma (BL) cells using systematically perturbed phosphorylation data of BL-2 and BL-41 cells.