Outbreak of severe community-acquired bacterial infections among children in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), October to December 2022.

Purpose: In late 2022, a surge of severe S. pyogenes infections was reported in several European countries. This study assessed hospitalizations and disease severity of community-acquired bacterial infections with S.

Allergic Reaction to a Commercially Available Insect Snack Caused by House Cricket (Acheta domesticus) Tropomyosin.

Scope: Edible insects contain allergens with potential cross-reactivity to other invertebrates. Here, this study examines IgE-reactive proteins in a house cricket snack (Acheta domesticus) leading to an allergic reaction in a 27-year old man followed by a similar reaction days later after eating shrimps.

Methods And Results: Prick to prick tests verify the IgE-mediated allergy to crickets and skin prick testing confirms a type I sensitization to house dust mite without any clinical relevance for the patient, and to shrimp extracts, but is negative for several other foods.

Big 5 Personality Traits and Individual- and Practice-Related Characteristics as Influencing Factors of Digital Maturity in General Practices: Quantitative Web-Based Survey Study.

Background: Various studies propose the significance of digital maturity in ensuring effective patient care and enabling improved health outcomes, a successful digital transformation, and optimized service delivery. Although previous research has centered around inpatient health care settings, research on digital maturity in general practices is still in its infancy.

Objective: As general practitioners (GPs) are the first point of contact for most patients, we aimed to shed light on the pivotal role of GPs' inherent characteristics, especially their personality, in the digital maturity of general practices.

Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in Patients with Obesity Class V (BMI > 60 kg/m): a Modified Delphi Study.

Background: Metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) is the preferred method to achieve significant weight loss in patients with Obesity Class V (BMI > 60 kg/m). However, there is no consensus regarding the best procedure(s) for this population. Additionally, these patients will likely have a higher risk of complications and mortality.

Validation of a 3D-printed robot-assisted partial nephrectomy training model.

Objectives: Most renal tumours can be treated with a partial nephrectomy, with robot-assisted partial nephrectomy becoming the new gold standard. This procedure is challenging to learn in a live setting, especially the enucleation and renorraphy phases. In this study, we attempted to evaluate face, content, and preliminary construct validity of a 3D-printed silicone renal tumour model in robotic training for robot-assisted partial nephrectomy.

A novel coupling technique based on thermal desorption gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry for breath analysis.

Exhaled breath analysis is evolving into an increasingly important non-invasive diagnostic tool. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath contain information about health status and are promising biomarkers for several diseases, including respiratory infections caused by bacteria. To monitor the composition of VOCs in breath or the emission of VOCs from bacteria, sensitive analytical techniques are required.

VARC-3 defined outcome of valve-in-valve transcatheter aortic valve implantation in stentless compared with stented aortic bioprostheses.

Background: Valve-in-valve (ViV) transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a viable alternative to redo surgery in selected patients with bioprosthetic valve dysfunction. Most ViV-TAVI procedures have been performed in stented bioprosthetic valves (ST); stentless bioprostheses (SL) lack fluoroscopic markers and could be more challenging for ViV-TAVI. Data on more recent patients applying Valve Academic Research Consortium (VARC)-3 defined outcomes are scarce.

Neuropsychological differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia: a systematic review with meta-regressions.

Introduction: Diagnostic classification systems and guidelines posit distinguishing patterns of impairment in Alzheimer's (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD). In our study, we aim to identify which diagnostic instruments distinguish them.

Methods: We searched PubMed and PsychInfo for empirical studies published until December 2020, which investigated differences in cognitive, behavioral, psychiatric, and functional measures in patients older than 64 years and reported information on VaD subtype, age, education, dementia severity, and proportion of women.

Endovascular treatment of renal artery stenosis in Germany: a retrospective analysis of the DEGIR registry 2018-2021.

Purpose: To provide an overview of endovascular treatment of renal artery stenosis (RAS) using the data of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für interventionelle Radiologie (DeGIR) quality management system.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed. Pre-, peri- and postprocedural data, technical success rates, complication rates, and clinical success rates at dismissal were examined.

Trends in frailty in brain tumor care during the COVID-19 pandemic in a nationwide hospital network in Germany.

Purpose: Among brain tumor patients, frailty is associated with poor outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased frailty in the general population. To date, evidence on changes in frailty among brain tumor patients during the pandemic is lacking.

Parameters predicting postoperative pain and quality of life after hemorrhoidectomy: follow-up results from a prospective multicenter randomized trial.

Purpose: Pain and reduced quality of life (QoL) are major subjects of interest after surgery for hemorrhoids. The aim of this study was to find predictive parameters for postoperative pain and QoL after hemorrhoidectomy.

Methods: This is a follow-up analysis of data derived from a multicenter randomized controlled trial including 770 patients, which examines the usefulness of tamponade after hemorrhoidectomy.

A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis of ChatGPT in the Medical Literature: Concise Review.

Background: ChatGPT is a 175-billion-parameter natural language processing model that is already involved in scientific content and publications. Its influence ranges from providing quick access to information on medical topics, assisting in generating medical and scientific articles and papers, performing medical data analyses, and even interpreting complex data sets.

Objective: The future role of ChatGPT remains uncertain and a matter of debate already shortly after its release.

Degenerative Changes in Aging Human Pelvic Lymph Nodes-A Reason to Rethink Staging and Therapy of Regional Malignancies?

Lymph node metastases are common in pelvic urological tumors, and the age-related remodeling process of the pelvic lymph nodes influences metastatic behavior. The aim of this work is to characterize age-related degenerative changes in the pelvic lymph nodes with respect to their occurrence and extent. A total of 5173 pelvic lymph nodes of 390 patients aged 44 to 79 years (median 68 years, IQR 62-71 years) were histologically examined for degenerative structural changes.

Antagonism of contractile forces in left ventricular hypertrophy: a diagnostic challenge for better pathophysiological and clinical understanding.

Cardiac function is characterised by haemodynamic parameters in the clinical scenario. Due to recent development in imaging techniques, the clinicians focus on the quantitative assessment of left ventricular size, shape and motion patterns mostly analysed by echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance. Because of the physiologically known antagonistic structure and function of the heart muscle, the effective performance of the heart remains hidden behind haemodynamic parameters.

Epicardial Adipose Tissue Changes After Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is a visceral fat depot located between the myocardium and visceral epicardium. Emerging evidence suggests that excessive EAT is linked to increased risk of cardiovascular conditions and other metabolic diseases. A literature search was conducted from the earliest studies to the 26th of November 2022 on PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane.

Neuroinflammatory markers in patients with haemophilia and healthy controls: Where are the differences?

Introduction: People with haemophilia (PwH) suffer from haemophilic arthropathy which is accompanied by acute and chronic inflammation. The aim of this study was to examine the neuroinflammatory network operative in PwH and to compare it to healthy controls.

Material And Methods: Blood samples were collected from 41 PwH (age 54.

Prescribing cascades in ambulatory care: A structured synthesis of evidence.

The strength of evidence for specific ambulatory care prescribing cascades, in which a marker drug is used to treat an adverse event caused by an index drug, has not been well characterized. To perform a structured, systematic, and transparent review of the evidence supporting ambulatory care prescribing cascades. Ninety-four potential prescribing cascades identified through a previously published systematic review.

Staphylococcus aureus surgical site infection rates in 5 European countries.

Objective: To determine the overall and procedure-specific incidence of surgical site infections (SSI) caused by Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) as well as risk factors for such across all surgical disciplines in Europe.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort of patients with surgical procedures performed at 14 European centres in 2016, with a nested case-control analysis.

Fine-grained age-matching improves atrophy-based detection of mild cognitive impairment more than amyloid-negative reference subjects.

Introduction: In clinical practice, differentiating between age-related gray matter (GM) atrophy and neurodegeneration-related atrophy at early disease stages, such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), remains challenging. We hypothesized that fined-grained adjustment for age effects and using amyloid-negative reference subjects could increase classification accuracy.

Methods: T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of 131 cognitively normal (CN) individuals and 91 patients with MCI from the Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative (ADNI) characterized concerning amyloid status, as well as 19 CN individuals and 19 MCI patients from an independent validation sample were segmented, spatially normalized and analyzed in the framework of voxel-based morphometry (VBM).

Failure of a Multi-Centric Clinical Trial Investigating Neoadjuvant Radio-Chemotherapy in Resectable Pancreatic Carcinoma (NEOPA-NCT01900327)-Which Lessons Are Learnt?

Background: A significant number of clinical trials must be prematurely discontinued due to recruitment failure, and only a small fraction publish results and a failure analysis. Based on our experience on conducting the NEOPA trial on neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy for resectable and borderline resectable pancreatic carcinoma (NCT01900327-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research-BMBF), we performed an analysis of potential reasons for recruitment failure and general problems in conducting clinical trials in Germany.

Methods: Systematic analysis of environmental factors, trial history, conducting and funding in the background of the published literature.

Morphologic perfusion patterns and PI-RADSv2.1 in transition zone prostate cancer.

Purpose: To evaluate morphologic perfusion patterns in transition zone prostate cancer in multiparametric MRI controlled by in-bore MRI-guided prostate biopsy.

Methods: Two experienced radiologists evaluated MRI perfusion patterns in consensus from 321 biopsy cores from the transition zone in 141 patients. Transition zone cancer was present in 77 cores in 36 patients.

Prevalence and risk factors of ischemic monocular vision loss and concurrent brain ischemia.

Introduction: We performed a retrospective cohort study to identify predictors of concurrent asymptomatic brain ischemia in patients with ischemic monocular vision loss.

Patients And Methods: An inpatient database research of admissions to the Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Germany between 01/2016 and 12/2020 was conducted. Inclusion criteria were confirmed diagnosis of transient monocular vision loss (MVL), retinal artery occlusion (RAO), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain within 10 days of MVL.

Resistance exercise: a mighty tool that adapts, destroys, rebuilds and modulates the molecular and structural environment of skeletal muscle.

Purpose: Skeletal muscle regulates health and performance by maintaining or increasing strength and muscle mass. Although the molecular mechanisms in response to resistance exercise (RE) significantly target the activation of protein synthesis, a plethora of other mechanisms and structures must be involved in orchestrating the communication, repair, and restoration of homeostasis after RE stimulation. In practice, RE can be modulated by variations in intensity, continuity and volume, which affect molecular responses and skeletal muscle adaptation.