Longitudinal assessment of diffusion-weighted imaging during magnetic resonance-guided radiotherapy in head and neck cancer.

Background: For radiotherapy of head and neck cancer (HNC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays a pivotal role due to its high soft tissue contrast. Moreover, it offers the potential to acquire functional information through diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) with the potential to personalize treatment. The aim of this study was to acquire repetitive DWI during the course of online adaptive radiotherapy on an 1.

Development and application of a clinical core data set for deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease, dystonia or tremor: from data collection to data exchange and data sharing.

Background: Comprehensive clinical data regarding factors influencing the individual disease course of patients with movement disorders treated with deep brain stimulation might help to better understand disease progression and to develop individualized treatment approaches.

Methods: The clinical core data set was developed by a multidisciplinary working group within the German transregional collaborative research network ReTune. The development followed standardized methodology comprising review of available evidence, a consensus process and performance of the first phase of the study.

Neurocognitive impact of different irradiation modalities for patients with grade I-II skull base meningioma: a prospective multi-arm cohort study (CANCER COG).

Background: Radiotherapy as a complement or an alternative to neurosurgery has a central role in the treatment of skull base grade I-II meningiomas. Radiotherapy techniques have improved considerably over the last two decades, becoming more effective and sparing more and more the healthy tissue surrounding the tumour. Currently, hypo-fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) for small tumours and normo-fractionated intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) or proton-therapy (PT) for larger tumours are the most widely used techniques.

Extracellular matrix stiffness regulates colorectal cancer progression via HSF4.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) has high incidence and mortality rates, with severe prognoses during invasion and metastasis stages. Despite advancements in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, the impact of the tumour microenvironment, particularly extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness, on CRC progression and metastasis is not fully understood.

Methods: This study included 107 CRC patients.

Challenges and adaptations in pancreatic cancer surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic in a high-volume center.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare systems worldwide, disrupting elective surgeries including those for cancer treatment. This study examines the effects of the pandemic on outcomes of pancreatic cancer surgeries at a specialized high-volume surgery center.

Materials And Methods: This study compared surgical volume and outcomes of pancreas resections between the pre-pandemic (January 2019 to February 2020), early pandemic (March 2020 to January 2021), and late pandemic (February 2021 to December 2021) periods.

Intradermal Advanced Glycation End-products Relate to Reduced Sciatic Nerve Structural Integrity in Type 2 Diabetes.

Background: Cardiovascular risk management is beneficial, but stringent glycemic control does not prevent the progression of distal sensorimotor polyneuropathy (DSPN). Persistent hyperglycemia-induced alterations and cardiovascular factors may contribute to diabetes-associated nerve damage. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between skin auto-fluorescence (sAF), an indicator of dermal advanced glycation end-product (AGE) accumulations, cardiovascular risk, and changes in peripheral nerve integrity.

Prognostic scores for predicting overall survival in patients with metastatic renal and urothelial cancer undergoing immunotherapy - which one to use?

Purpose: Evaluation of the prognostic significance of four different scoring systems in a real-world cohort of patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) or renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) undergoing immunotherapy (IO).

Methods: For 120 patients with mUC (n = 67) and mRCC (n = 53) who received IO between July 2016 and December 2020 at the tertiary Urological University Medical Centre Mannheim, the following scores were recorded at pre-treatment baseline: modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), neutrophil-to-eosinophil ratio (NER). Overall survival (time between the beginning of IO until the patients' death or last contact) was determined for every patient.

Spatially resolved transcriptomics and graph-based deep learning improve accuracy of routine CNS tumor diagnostics.

The diagnostic landscape of brain tumors integrates comprehensive molecular markers alongside traditional histopathological evaluation. DNA methylation and next-generation sequencing (NGS) have become a cornerstone in central nervous system (CNS) tumor classification. A limiting requirement for NGS and methylation profiling is sufficient DNA quality and quantity, which restrict its feasibility.

Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything: making intraoperative transfusion decisions using point-of-care testing.

Accurate and timely diagnostic information is a vital adjunct to clinical assessment to inform therapeutic decision-making, including decisions to transfuse, or not transfuse, blood components. A prospective cohort study of diagnostic point-of-care (POC) haemoglobin measurements on arterial or central venous samples from adults undergoing major noncardiac surgery compared three widely used devices, HemoCue®, i-STAT™, and the Rad-67™ pulse CO-Oxymeter® finger sensor device, against standard laboratory haemoglobin measurements, but importantly not against a blood gas analyser. The study focused on haemoglobin results below 100 g L to establish the utility of these devices to guide red cell transfusion decisions.

Self-reported determinants for subjective financial distress: a qualitative interview study with German cancer patients.

Objectives: Patient-reported financial effects of a tumour disease in a universal healthcare setting are a multidimensional phenomenon. Actual and anticipated objective financial burden caused by direct medical and non-medical costs as well as indirect costs such as loss of income can lead to subjective financial distress. To better understand subjective financial distress, the presented study explores self-reported determinants for subjective financial distress in German patients with cancer, aiming to inform a new German-language patient-reported outcome measure for determining the financial effects of a tumour disease.

Zn-doped CaP coating equips Ti implants with corrosion resistance, biomineralization, antibacterial and immunotolerant activities.

Introduction: Chronic inflammation leading to implant failure present major challenges in orthopedics, dentistry, and reconstructive surgery. Titanium alloys, while widely used, often provoke inflammatory complications. Zinc-doped calcium phosphate (CaP) coatings offer potential to enhance implant integration by improving corrosion resistance, bioactivity, and immunocompatibility.

Artificial intelligence for diagnosis and predictive biomarkers in Non-Small cell lung cancer Patients: New promises but also new hurdles for the pathologist.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) based tools in pathology laboratories has brought forward unlimited opportunities for pathologists. Promising AI applications used for accomplishing diagnostic, prognostic and predictive tasks are being developed at a high pace. This is notably true in thoracic oncology, given the significant and rapid therapeutic progress made recently for lung cancer patients.

Prospective multi-centre analysis of rural trauma team development training for medical trainees and traffic law enforcement professionals in Uganda: an interrupted time series study.

Background: Research shows that trauma team formation could potentially improve effectiveness of injury care in rural settings. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of rural trauma team training amongst medical trainees and traffic law enforcement professionals in Uganda.

Methods: Prospective multi-centre interrupted time series analysis of an interventional training based on the 4th edition of rural trauma team development course of the American College of Surgeons.

The implementation and side effect management of immune checkpoint inhibitors in gynecologic oncology: a JAGO/NOGGO survey.

Background: The integration of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) into routine gynecologic cancer treatment requires a thorough understanding of how to manage immune-related adverse events (irAEs) to ensure patient safety. However, reports on real-world clinical experience in the management of ICIs in gynecologic oncology are very limited. The aim of this survey was to provide a real-world overview of the experiences and the current state of irAE management of ICIs in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

New Artisse intrasaccular device for intracranial aneurysm treatment: short term clinical and angiographic result from the prospective registry INSPIRE-A.

Background: Intrasaccular devices have broadened treatment options for wide necked aneurysms. This study presents the preliminary experience with the Artisse 2.0 device.

Technical and clinical outcomes of 13 years of endovascular repair of infrarenal, atherosclerotic, penetrating aortic ulcers.

Objectives: To report the technical and clinical outcomes of endovascular repair of all infrarenal, penetrating aortic ulcers (PAU) that were treated at a single institution over a 13-year period.

Methods: This is a single-center, retrospective observational study. All patients consecutively treated for atherosclerotic, infrarenal PAU were included between 2010 and 2023.

Ciliopathy-associated missense mutations in IFT140 are tolerated by the inherent resilience of the IFT machinery.

Genotype-phenotype correlations of rare diseases are complicated by low patient number, high phenotype variability and compound heterozygosity. Mutations may cause instability of single proteins, and affect protein complex formation or overall robustness of a specific process in a given cell. Ciliopathies offer an interesting case for studying genotype-phenotype correlations as they have a spectrum of severity and include diverse phenotypes depending on different mutations in the same protein.

Hippocampal DNA methylation promotes contextual fear memory persistence by facilitating systems consolidation and cortical engram stabilization.

Background: Long-term fear memory storage involves gradual reorganization of supporting brain regions over time, a process termed systems consolidation. Memories initially rely on the hippocampus but gradually shift dependence to the neocortex. Although hippocampal activity drives this transfer, the molecular basis of systems consolidation is largely unknown.

Spherical harmonics texture extraction for versatile analysis of biological objects.

The characterization of phenotypes in cells or organisms from microscopy data largely depends on differences in the spatial distribution of image intensity. Multiple methods exist for quantifying the intensity distribution - or image texture - across objects in natural images. However, many of these texture extraction methods do not directly adapt to 3D microscopy data.

Simultaneous Unbinned Differential Cross-Section Measurement of Twenty-Four Z+jets Kinematic Observables with the ATLAS Detector.

Z boson events at the Large Hadron Collider can be selected with high purity and are sensitive to a diverse range of QCD phenomena. As a result, these events are often used to probe the nature of the strong force, improve Monte Carlo event generators, and search for deviations from standard model predictions. All previous measurements of Z boson production characterize the event properties using a small number of observables and present the results as differential cross sections in predetermined bins.

Measurement of Λ_{b}^{0}, Λ_{c}^{+}, and Λ Decay Parameters Using Λ_{b}^{0}→Λ_{c}^{+}h^{-} Decays.

A comprehensive study of the angular distributions in the bottom-baryon decays Λ_{b}^{0}→Λ_{c}^{+}h^{-}(h=π,K), followed by Λ_{c}^{+}→Λh^{+} with Λ→pπ^{-} or Λ_{c}^{+}→pK_{S}^{0} decays, is performed using a data sample of proton-proton collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9  fb^{-1} collected by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and 13 TeV. The decay parameters and the associated charge-parity (CP) asymmetries are measured, with no significant CP violation observed. For the first time, the Λ_{b}^{0}→Λ_{c}^{+}h^{-} decay parameters are measured.

Individualizing musical tempo to spontaneous rates maximizes music-induced hypoalgesia.

Music has long been recognized as a noninvasive and cost-effective means of reducing pain. However, the selection of music for pain relief often relies on intuition rather than on a scientific understanding of the impact of basic musical attributes on pain perception. This study examines how a fundamental element of music-tempo-affects its pain-relieving properties.

Bots in white coats: are large language models the future of patient education? a multi-center cross-sectional analysis.

Objectives: Every year, around 300 million surgeries are conducted worldwide, with an estimated 4.2 million deaths occurring within 30 days after surgery. Adequate patient education is crucial, but often falls short due to the stress patients experience before surgery.

Refractory and Resistant Herpes Simplex Virus Mucocutaneous Infections in Immunocompromised Patients: Literature Review and Proposed Definitions for Use in Clinical Trials.

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection is one of the most prevalent viral infections worldwide. In general, host immunity is sufficient to clear viral shedding and recurrences, although it is insufficient to prevent subsequent virologic reactivations. In immunocompromised patients, prolonged and difficult-to-treat HSV infections may develop.