Role of Cardiovascular MR Imaging and MR Angiography in Patients with Pulmonary Vascular Disease.

Cardiac MR imaging and pulmonary MR angiography (MRA) are important clinical tools for the assessment of pulmonary vascular diseases. There are evolving noncontrast and contrast-enhanced techniques to evaluate pulmonary vasculature. Pulmonary MRA is a feasible imaging alternative to CTA in pulmonary embolism detection.

Pharmacological Characterization of the Novel Selective Kappa Opioid Receptor Agonists 10-Iodo-Akuammicine and 10-Bromo-Akuammicine in Mice.

Akuammicine (AKC), an indole alkaloid, is a kappa opioid receptor (KOR) full agonist with a moderate affinity. 10-Iodo-akuammicine (I-AKC) and 10-Bromo-akuammicine (Br-AKC) showed higher affinities for the KOR with K values of 2.4 and 5.

Development of a Patient Reported Outcome Measure of Side Effects for Patients Taking Calcineurin Inhibitors: The FACIT-CNI-Ntx.

Rationale & Objective: Valid measures of side effects are important to inform clinical use of calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs). This study sought to develop and establish the content validity of a PRO measure to capture side effects among kidney transplant recipients taking CNIs.

Study Design: Qualitative interviews for concept elicitation and cognitive debriefing.

ARCH: Large-scale knowledge graph via aggregated narrative codified health records analysis.

Objective: Electronic health record (EHR) systems contain a wealth of clinical data stored as both codified data and free-text narrative notes (NLP). The complexity of EHR presents challenges in feature representation, information extraction, and uncertainty quantification. To address these challenges, we proposed an efficient Aggregated naRrative Codified Health (ARCH) records analysis to generate a large-scale knowledge graph (KG) for a comprehensive set of EHR codified and narrative features.

Rotating Hinge Revision Total Knee Arthroplasty With and Without Porous Cone Adjunct Fixation.

Introduction: As the number of revision total knee arthroplasties (rTKA) continues to rise, there is increasing interest in the use of contemporary rotating hinge prostheses. These devices often incorporate porous cones to fill bone defects and enhance long-term fixation. This study evaluated the clinical and functional outcomes and survivorship in rTKA patients utilizing a rotating hinge prosthesis with flexible titanium (FT) cones, porous tantalum (PT) cones, or no cones.

Six-month safety and efficacy outcomes from the randomized-controlled arm of the WRAPSODY Arteriovenous Access Efficacy (WAVE) trial.

Stenosis within the arteriovenous fistula (AVF) of hemodialysis patients leads to vascular access dysfunction and inadequate hemodialysis. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) is the standard therapy for stenosis. However, rates of restenosis and loss of access patency remain high.

Crossing the blood-brain barrier: emerging therapeutic strategies for neurological disease.

The blood-brain barrier is a physiological barrier that can prevent both small and complex drugs from reaching the brain to exert a pharmacological effect. For treatment of neurological diseases, drug concentrations at the target site are a fundamental parameter for therapeutic effect; thus, the blood-brain barrier is a major obstacle to overcome. Novel strategies have been developed to circumvent the blood-brain barrier, including CSF delivery, intracranial delivery, ultrasound-based methods, membrane transporters, receptor-mediated transcytosis, and nanotherapeutics.

Three-dimensional kinematics in patients with anterior shoulder instability - A systematic review with meta-analysis.

Anterior Shoulder Instability (ASI) is a common orthopedic condition often resulting in altered shoulder kinematics. Understanding the biomechanics of the unstable shoulder is critical to determine the most appropriate treatment. This study aims to conduct the first systematic review and meta-analysis of three-dimensional (3D) shoulder kinematic studies in ASI patients.

Promoting longus colli muscle activation: Force direction in sitting matters.

Background: There is limited evidence to inform exercise prescription for deep neck flexor activation out of supine.

Objective: To compare activation of longus colli (LC) and sternocleidomastoid (SCM) from supine to sitting, and to compare the effect of craniocervical flexion (CCF) exercises in sitting on activation.

Methods: Twenty-four individuals without neck pain (mean age 28.

Association of malnutrition with surgical outcomes after spine surgery for spinal epidural abscess.

Background: Malnutrition is a predictor of poor surgical outcomes, but its specific effects in spinal epidural abscess (SEA) are understudied. This study aims to assess the association between nutritional status and post-operative outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the 2011-2022 American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database to identify adult SEA patients who underwent spinal surgery.

2024 White Paper on Recent Issues in Bioanalysis: Three Way-Cross Validation; Urine Clinical Analysis; Automated Methods; Regulatory Queries on Plasma Protein Binding; Automated Biospecimen Management; ELN Migration; Ultra-Sensitivity Mass Spectrometry ( - Recommendations on Advanced Strategies for Mass Spectrometry Assays, Chromatography, Sample Preparation and BMV/Regulated Bioanalysis - Regulatory Agencies' Inputs on Regulated Bioanalysis/BMV).

The 18 Workshop on Recent Issues in Bioanalysis (18 WRIB) took place in San Antonio, TX, USA on May 6-10, 2024. Over 1100 professionals representing pharma/biotech companies, CROs, and multiple regulatory agencies convened to actively discuss the most current topics of interest in bioanalysis. The 18 WRIB included 3 Main Workshops and 7 Specialized Workshops that together spanned 1 week to allow an exhaustive and thorough coverage of all major issues in bioanalysis of biomarkers, immunogenicity, gene therapy, cell therapy and vaccines.

Detecting noncredible symptomology in ADHD evaluations using machine learning.

Introduction: Diagnostic evaluations for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are becoming increasingly complicated by the number of adults who fabricate or exaggerate symptoms. Novel methods are needed to improve the assessment process required to detect these noncredible symptoms. The present study investigated whether unsupervised machine learning (ML) could serve as one such method, and detect noncredible symptom reporting in adults undergoing ADHD evaluations.

Evaluation of the Pediatric Regional Anesthesia Time-Out Checklist: A Simulation Study.

Introduction: The Society for Pediatric Anesthesia Quality and Safety Committee developed the Pediatric Regional Anesthesia Time-Out Checklist, consisting of 14 safety items intended to be reviewed by an anesthesia team prior to a regional anesthetic. Primarily, we hypothesized that use of this Checklist would increase the number of safety items performed compared with no checklist, evaluating the usefulness of this tool. Secondarily, we hypothesized that, after checklist training, subjects would show better clinical judgment by electing to perform a regional anesthetic in scenarios in which no programmed error existed and electing to not perform a regional anesthetic in scenarios in which a programmed error did exist.

Dietary Factors and Interventions for Cognitive Impairment and Dementia.

Nutrition is an important lifestyle factor that can reduce the risk of future cognitive impairment and various neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRDs) [...

Harnessing the AI/ML in Drug and Biological Products Discovery and Development: The Regulatory Perspective.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the disruptive potential to transform patients' lives via innovations in pharmaceutical sciences, drug development, clinical trials, and manufacturing. However, it presents significant challenges, ethical concerns, and risks across sectors and societies. AI's rapid advancement has revealed regulatory gaps as existing public policies struggle to keep pace with the challenges posed by these emerging technologies.

GnRH Peptide Antagonist: Comparative Analysis of Chemistry and Formulation with Implications for Clinical Safety and Efficacy.

Overexpression of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor (GnRH-R) plays a vital role in the advancement of reproductive malignancies such as ovarian, endometrial, and prostate cancer. Peptidomimetic GnRH antagonists are a substantial therapeutic development, providing fast and reversible suppression of gonadotropins by directly blocking GnRH-R. Unlike typical GnRH agonists, these antagonists prevent the early hormonal flare, have a faster onset of action, and have a lower risk of cardiovascular problems.

Efficient Multi-Task Training with Adaptive Feature Alignment for Universal Image Segmentation.

Universal image segmentation aims to handle all segmentation tasks within a single model architecture and ideally requires only one training phase. To achieve task-conditioned joint training, a task token needs to be used in the multi-task training to condition the model for specific tasks. Existing approaches generate the task token from a text input (e.

Migraine Genetic Susceptibility Does Not Strongly Influence Migraine Characteristics and Outcomes in a Treated, Real-World, Community Cohort.

: Migraine is a common neurological disorder with highly variable characteristics. While genome-wide association studies have identified genetic risk factors that implicate underlying pathways, the influence of genetic susceptibility on disease characteristics or treatment response is incompletely understood. We examined the relationships between a previously developed standardized integrative migraine polygenic genetic risk score (PRS) and migraine characteristics in a real-world, treated patient cohort.

Neuroinflammation: A Driving Force in the Onset and Progression of Alzheimer's Disease.

: The goal of this commentary is to highlight several key components of the inflammatory process as it relates to amyloid toxicity in Alzheimer's disease (AD), including the role of neuroinflammatory factors and peripheral inflammatory events. : Google Scholar and PubMed were used to find articles with the following keywords: Alzheimer's disease, amyloids, neuroinflammation, peripheral inflammation, microglia, cytokines, and treatments. Sources that were case reports, not peer-reviewed, or older than 30 years were excluded.

Associations of Voice Metrics with Postural Function in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: This study aimed to explore the potential associations between voice metrics of patients with PD and their motor symptoms.

Methods: Motor and vocal data including the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS-III), Harmonic-Noise Ratio (HNR), jitter, shimmer, and smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS) were analyzed through exploratory correlations followed by univariate linear regression analyses. We employed these four voice metrics as independent variables and the total and sub-scores of the UPDRS-III as dependent variables.

Dysregulation of FURIN and Other Proprotein Convertase Genes in the Progression from HPV Infection to Cancer.

Productive infections of oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are closely linked to the differentiation of host epithelial cells, a process that the virus manipulates to create conditions favorable to produce virion progeny. This viral interference involves altering the expression of numerous host genes. Among these, proprotein convertases (PCs) have emerged as potential oncogenes due to their central role in cellular functions.

Leadless Pacing: Current Status and Ongoing Developments.

Although significant strides have been made in cardiac pacing, the field is still evolving. While transvenous permanent pacing is highly effective in the management of bradyarrhythmias, it is not risk free and may result in significant morbidity and, rarely, mortality. Transvenous leads are often the weakest link in a pacing system.

The Homeobox Transcription Factor NKX3.1 Displays an Oncogenic Role in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Cells.

Background/objectives: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men. The increase in incidence rates of more advanced and aggressive forms of the disease year-to-year fuels urgency to find new therapeutic interventions and bolster already established ones. PCa is a uniquely targetable disease in that it is fueled by male hormones (androgens) that drive tumorigenesis via the androgen receptor or AR.