Direct comparison of the diagnostic performance of growth differentiation factor 8 in pediatric versus adult heart failure.

Introduction: Growth differentiation factor 8 (GDF-8, myostatin) has been proposed for the management of adult heart failure (HF). Its potential role in pediatric HF patients is unknown. We sought to investigate its diagnostic performance in adult versus pediatric HF.

Lung-function trajectories: relevance and implementation in clinical practice.

Lung development starts in utero and continues during childhood through to adolescence, reaching its peak in early adulthood. This growth is followed by gradual decline due to physiological lung ageing. Lung-function development can be altered by several host and environmental factors during the life course.

Oral fusidic acid for the treatment of mild-to-moderate hidradenitis suppurativa.

Background: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a debilitating inflammatory skin disease. Tetracyclines are one of the few therapeutic options recommended for mild-to-moderate disease. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of systemic fusidic acid's (FA) effectiveness in treating HS.

Signatures of migraine aura in high-density-EEG.

Objective: Cortical spreading depolarization is highly conserved among the species. It is easily detectable in direct cortical surface recordings and has been recorded in the cortex of humans with severe neurological disease. It is considered the pathophysiological correlate of human migraine aura, but direct electrophysiological evidence is still missing.

Factors associated with diabetic foot ulcers and lower limb amputations in type 1 and type 2 diabetes supported by real-world data from the German/Austrian DPV registry.

Aims: Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a leading cause of lower limb amputations in people with diabetes. This study was aimed to retrospectively analyze factors affecting DFU using real-world data from a large, prospective central-European diabetes registry (DPV [Diabetes-Patienten-Verlaufsdokumentation]).

Materials And Methods: We matched adults with type 1 (T1D) or type 2 diabetes (T2D) and DFU to controls without DFU by diabetes type, age, sex, diabetes duration, and treatment year to compare possible risk factors.

Retrospective Comparison of Commercially Available Automated Insulin Delivery With Open-Source Automated Insulin Delivery Systems in Type 1 Diabetes.

Background: Automated insulin delivery (AID) systems have shown to improve glycemic control in a range of populations and settings. At the start of this study, only one commercial AID system had entered the Austrian market (MiniMed 670G, Medtronic). However, there is an ever-growing community of people living with type 1 diabetes (PWT1D) using open-source (OS) AID systems.

Prevalence of chronic cough, its risk factors and population attributable risk in the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study: a multinational cross-sectional study.

Background: Chronic cough is a common respiratory symptom with an impact on daily activities and quality of life. Global prevalence data are scarce and derive mainly from European and Asian countries and studies with outcomes other than chronic cough. In this study, we aimed to estimate the prevalence of chronic cough across a large number of study sites as well as to identify its main risk factors using a standardised protocol and definition.

The effect of seminal pathogens on standard semen parameters, sperm kinematics and seminal inflammatory markers.

This study evaluated the effects of urogenital pathogens on standard semen parameters, sperm kinematics and host inflammatory response in a cohort of asymptomatic subfertile men. There were six groups based on the results of bacterial culture, including Ureaplasma urealyticum (U. Urealyticum) (n = 27), mixed comprising two or more pathogenic species (n = 28), Gardnerella Vaginalis (G.

Automated classification of hidradenitis suppurativa disease severity by convolutional neural network analyses using calibrated clinical images.

Background: The assessment of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) severity requires detailed, and error-prone lesion counts. This proof-of-concept study aimed to automatically classify HS disease severity using machine learning of clinical smartphone images.

Methods: 777 ambient-light and size-controlled images were used to build a class-balanced synthetic dataset (n = 7675).

Continuous glucose monitoring in older adults with diabetes: Data from the diabetes prospective follow-up (DPV) registry.

Aims: To analyse predictors for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) use in people with diabetes aged ≥60 years using insulin therapy and to assess the rates of CGM use during recent years (2019-2021).

Research Design And Methods: Prospective study including 6849 individuals with diabetes and insulin therapy (type 2 diabetes: n = 5320; type 1 diabetes: n = 1529) aged ≥60 years. Data from 129 treatment centres were retrieved from the Diabetes Prospective Follow-up Registry (DPV) in March 2023.

Diagnostic Potential of Oscillometry: A Population-based Approach.

Respiratory resistance (Rrs) and reactance (Xrs) as measured by oscillometry and their intrabreath changes have emerged as sensitive parameters for detecting early pathological impairments during tidal breathing. This study evaluates the prevalence and association of abnormal oscillometry parameters with respiratory symptoms and respiratory diseases in a general adult population. A total of 7,560 subjects in the Austrian LEAD (Lung, hEart, sociAl, boDy) Study with oscillometry measurements (computed with the Resmon Pro FULL; Restech Srl) were included in this study.

Evolution of characteristics and biologic treatment effectiveness in patients of the Austrian psoriasis registry from 2004-2022.

Background And Objectives: This study analyzed the extent to which the recent introduction of more effective treatments has led to an improvement in real-world psoriasis patients.

Patients And Methods: Patient characteristics and the first-year treatment effectiveness in biologic-naive patients have been analyzed since 2004 until now, irrespective of treatment switches.

Results: Data from 2,729 patients were eligible for this analysis.

Tackling Vaccine Hesitancy and Increasing Vaccine Willingness Among Parents of Unvaccinated Children in Austria.

In autumn 2021, there was a surge of COVID-19 infections in Austria, and vaccination coverage stagnated at a below-average level compared to the rest of Europe. Surveys showed that both children and adolescents were the main drivers of the rising infection rates and that vaccination numbers were particularly low in this age group. This was due to widespread vaccination skepticism and hesitancy among parents of unvaccinated children and adolescents.

DICOM® integrated EEG data: A first clinical implementation of the new DICOM standard for neurophysiology data.

Objective: Demonstrating a pilot implementation of the Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) neurophysiology standard published in 2020.

Methods: An automated workflow for converting EEG data from a proprietary vendor EEG format to standardized and interoperable DICOM format was developed and tested.

Results: Retrieval of proprietary EEG data, associated videos, annotations and metadata from the vendor EEG archive and their subsequent conversion to DICOM EEG was possible without changes to the departmental workflow.

Occipital transcranial direct current stimulation in episodic migraine patients: effect on cerebral perfusion.

Cerebral blood flow differs between migraine patients and healthy controls during attack and the interictal period. This study compares the brain perfusion of episodic migraine patients and healthy controls and investigates the influence of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the occipital cortex. We included healthy adult controls and episodic migraineurs.

Prevalence of dyspnea in general adult populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Dyspnea is a commonly described symptom in various chronic and acute conditions. Despite its frequency, relatively little is known about the prevalence and assessment of dyspnea in general populations. The aims of this review were: 1) to estimate the prevalence of dyspnea in general adult populations; 2) to identify associated factors; and 3) to identify used methods for dyspnea assessment.

Secondary headaches - red and green flags and their significance for diagnostics.

A small percentage of patients suffer from a secondary headache syndrome. It is imperative that clinicians are able to differentiate primary headache syndromes from secondary headache syndromes, as failure to do so significantly worsens morbidity and mortality. Recent advances in our understanding of pathobiological mechanisms offer useful information on these enigmatic disorders.

Prospective analysis of anatomic features predisposing patients to intraoperative floppy iris syndrome.

Purpose: To aid preoperative risk assessment by identifying anatomic parameters corresponding with a higher risk of intraoperative floppy iris syndrome (IFIS) during cataract surgery.

Methods: Prospective cohort study of 55 patients with α-adrenergic receptor antagonist (α-ARA) treatment and 55 controls undergoing cataract surgery. Anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT), video pupilometer, and biometry measurements were performed preoperatively and analyzed regarding anatomic parameters that corresponded with a higher rate of IFIS.

Simulation of bempedoic acid and ezetimibe in the lipid-lowering treatment pathway in Austria using the contemporary SANTORINI cohort of high and very high risk patients.

Objective: The low-density lipoprotein cholesterol goals in the 2019 European Society of Cardiology/European Atherosclerosis Society dyslipidaemia guidelines necessitate greater use of combination therapies. We describe a real-world cohort of patients in Austria and simulate the addition of oral bempedoic acid and ezetimibe to estimate the proportion of patients reaching goals.

Methods: Patients at high or very high cardiovascular risk on lipid-lowering treatments (excluding proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitors) from the Austrian cohort of the observational SANTORINI study were included using specific criteria.

First Clinical Experiences with the New DICOM Neurophysiology Standard.

Background: Exchange of EEG data among institutions is complicated due to vendor-specific proprietary EEG file formats. The DICOM standard, which has long been used for storage and exchange of imaging studies, was expanded to store neurophysiology data in 2020.

Objectives: To implement DICOM as an interoperable and vendor-independent storage format for EEG recordings in the Clinic Hietzing.