Methodological challenges in systematic reviews of mHealth interventions: Survey and consensus-based recommendations.

Objective: Mobile Health (mHealth) refers to using mobile devices to support health. This study aimed to identify specific methodological challenges in systematic reviews (SRs) of mHealth interventions and to develop guidance for addressing selected challenges.

Study Design And Setting: Two-phase participatory research project.

Precision Medicine in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are traditionally defined as the two main subtypes of inflammatory bowel disease. However, a more recent view considers IBD as a spectrum of heterogeneous phenotypes with consistent differences in clinical presentation and behaviors, likely explained by differences in underlying pathogenetic mechanisms. The etiology is still elusive, and the suggested pathogenesis is a complex interplay among genetic predisposition and abnormal immune response at the mucosal intestinal level, activated by only partially identified environmental triggers leading to altered intestinal permeability and impaired handling of gut microbiota.

Expression, function, and regulation of the embryonic transcription factor TBX1 in parathyroid tumors.

Transcription factors active in embryonic parathyroid cells can be maintained in adult parathyroids and be involved in tumorigenesis. TBX1, the candidate gene of 22q11.2-DiGeorge syndrome, which includes congenital hypoparathyroidism, is involved in parathyroid embryogenesis.

Efficacy and safety profile of boceprevir- or telaprevir-based triple therapy or dual peginterferon alfa-2a or alfa-2b plus ribavirin therapy in chronic hepatitis C: the real-world PegBase observational study.

Background: The aim of the study was to determine the efficacy and safety of triple therapy with a first-generation protease inhibitor (PI; boceprevir, telaprevir) plus peginterferon alfa-2a or -2b plus ribavirin, and dual therapy (peginterferon alfa-2a or -2b plus ribavirin) in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) in routine clinical practice.

Methods: PegBase was an international, prospective, observational study in which 4441 patients with CHC were enrolled in 27 countries. This analysis focuses on results in 4100 treatment-naïve and previously treated patients treated with PI-based triple therapy or dual therapy, according to the discretion of the investigator and local standards of practice.

NS5A resistance-associated substitutions in patients with genotype 1 hepatitis C virus: Prevalence and effect on treatment outcome.

Background & Aims: The efficacy of NS5A inhibitors for the treatment of patients chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) can be affected by the presence of NS5A resistance-associated substitutions (RASs). We analyzed data from 35 phase I, II, and III studies in 22 countries to determine the pretreatment prevalence of various NS5A RASs, and their effect on outcomes of treatment with ledipasvir-sofosbuvir in patients with genotype 1 HCV.

Methods: NS5A gene deep sequencing analysis was performed on samples from 5397 patients in Gilead clinical trials.

genotype is associated with cirrhosis or transition to cirrhosis in treatment-naive patients with chronic HCV genotype 1 infection: the international observational Gen-C study.

Background And Purpose: Contradictory data exist on the association between host interleukin-28B () rs12979860 genotype and liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). This large, international, observational study (NCT01675427/MV25600) investigated relationships between rs12979860 genotype and liver fibrosis stage in CHC patients.

Methods: A total of 3003 adult, treatment-naive CHC patients were enrolled into the study.

Final Results of the Telaprevir Access Program: FibroScan Values Predict Safety and Efficacy in Hepatitis C Patients with Advanced Fibrosis or Cirrhosis.

Background: Liver stiffness determined by transient elastography is correlated with hepatic fibrosis stage and has high accuracy for detecting severe fibrosis and cirrhosis in chronic hepatitis C patients. We evaluated the clinical value of baseline FibroScan values for the prediction of safety and efficacy of telaprevir-based therapy in patients with advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis in the telaprevir Early Access Program HEP3002.

Methods: 1,772 patients with HCV-1 and bridging fibrosis or cirrhosis were treated with telaprevir plus pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin (PR) for 12 weeks followed by PR alone, the total treatment duration depending on virological response and previous response type.

In routine clinical practice, few physicians use early viral kinetics to guide HCV dual therapy treatment decisions.

Background & Aims: PROPHESYS is a large, multinational, non-interventional prospective cohort study of chronic hepatitis C patients treated with peginterferon alfa/ribavirin. This subanalysis assesses rates of premature treatment discontinuation stratified by on-treatment virological response (VR).

Methods: This PROPHESYS subanalysis is restricted to treatment-naive, hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype (G)1/2/3 mono-infected patients who received peginterferon alfa-2a (40KD)/ribavirin with intended treatment duration of 48 (G1) or 24 weeks (G2/3).

Massive corneal edema treated with corneal cross-linking.

Introduction: Massive corneal edema disrupts the fine architecture of corneal stroma that guarantees its transparency, causing opacities that seriously impair clear vision and are usually solved by corneal transplant. Corneal cross-linking, a treatment developed to halt keratoconus progression, results in a loss of water and a compaction of corneal stroma. It might therefore be useful to improve the pathologic edematous condition of some corneas, ameliorating visual acuity and allowing more time for a surgical procedure of keratoplasty.

Individualizing treatment duration in hepatitis C virus genotype 2/3-infected patients.

The drugs currently licensed for the treatment of hepatitis C are Peg-Interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin. In recent years, the recommendation to treat hepatitis C virus genotype 2- and 3-infected patients with a fixed 800 mg/day dose of ribavirin in combination with PEG-IFN and for just 24 weeks has been challenged by the concept of tailoring the length of therapy according to on-treatment viral response. Therefore, the objective of the present review was to highlight the different designs of the studies on short treatment duration and the role of wk4-R as a predictor of sustained virological response after an abbreviated course of treatment.

Transthoracic ultrasound in the evaluation of pulmonary fibrosis: our experience.

The purpose of this study was to identify the ultrasonographic features of mild, moderate and severe pulmonary fibrosis. Between December 2005 and November 2007, transthoracic ultrasonography (US) was performed by a single operator with specific training in lung sonography on 84 consecutive patients (51 males and 33 females, aged 46 to 73 y) with pulmonary fibrosis. The obtained data were compared with those from a sample of 162 healthy subjects (78 men and 84 women, aged 18 to 76 y).

Endovascular repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in a patient with horseshoe kidney: report of a case.

A horseshoe kidney poses special problems during treatment of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), and there is much controversy about the most suitable method of repair. We report the case of a 65-year-old man with a horseshoe kidney, in whom an AAA was treated with a unibody bifurcated endograft. During the procedure, the two anomalous renal arteries were sacrificed.

Expression and heterodimer-binding activity of Ku70 and Ku80 in human non-melanoma skin cancer.

Background: Experimental data suggest that exposure to ultraviolet radiation may indirectly induce DNA double-strand breaks.

Aim: To investigate the contribution of the non-homologous end-joining repair pathway in basal and squamous cell carcinomas.

Methods: Levels of Ku70 and Ku80 proteins were determined by immunohistochemical analysis and Ku70-Ku80 heterodimer-binding activity by electrophoretic mobility shift assay.

Indirect CFTR mutation identification by PCR/OLA anomalous electropherograms.

Mutations of CFTR gene are responsible for cystic fibrosis (CF) and other clinical conditions such as congenital absence of the vas deferens (CAVD), chronic pancreatitis (IP), and idiopathic disseminated bronchiectasis (DBE) classified as CFTR-related disorders. The PCR/OLA assay is designed to detect 31 known mutations including the 24 most common CF mutations worldwide, as identified by the CF Consortium. In order to define the CFTR genotype a series of 1812 individuals from central-southern Italy with and without CF manifestations were screened by using the PCR/OLA assay.

Congenital mesoblastic nephroma: report of a Case with review of the most significant literature.

Aims And Background: Congenital mesoblastic nephroma (CMN) is a rare pediatric tumor of the kidney with the highest peak of incidence during the first 3 postnatal months. It has previously been confused with Wilms' tumor (which, on the contrary, is rare during the first six months of age and is still considered a histogenetic congener). CMN almost always has a favourable prognosis.

Linear IgA bullous dermatosis after contact with sodium hypochlorite.

The onset of linear IgA bullous dermatosis (LABD) is generally spontaneous, but a number of cases of LABD have been reported either following drug exposure or in association with malignancies. We describe a patient who developed a vesicular eruption shortly after an irritant dermatitis caused by the contact with a detergent containing sodium hypochlorite. Direct immunofluorescence revealed linear deposits of IgA and C3 in the epidermal basement membrane.