Response of Blood Pressure to Renal Denervation Is Not Associated With Genetic Variants.

Background: Renal denervation lowers blood pressure (BP) in patients with uncontrolled hypertension. We conducted an unbiased genomic screen to identify genetic variants that may associate with BP response to renal denervation (RDN).

Methods: Patients (n=268) with uncontrolled resistant hypertension (baseline BP, 166±21/90±15 mm Hg) who underwent endovascular RDN using the Symplicity catheter (Medtronic, Inc, Santa Rosa, CA) were included.

Accelerating Parkinson's Disease drug development with federated learning approaches.

Parkinson's Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder afflicting almost 12 million people. Increased understanding of its complex and heterogenous disease pathology, etiology and symptom manifestations has resulted in the need to design, capture and interrogate substantial clinical datasets. Herein we advocate how advances in the deployment of artificial intelligence models for Federated Data Analysis and Federated Learning can help spearhead coordinated and sustainable approaches to address this grand challenge.

Percutaneous and endoscopic transpapillary cholecystoduodenal stenting in acute cholecystitis-A viable long-term option in high-risk patients?

Background: The prolonged use of percutaneous cholecystostomy tubes (PCTs) in patients with acute cholecystitis, deemed inoperable, is fraught with complications. Transpapillary cholecystoduodenal stenting (TCDS) is an alternative technique that restores the physiologic outflow of bile, avoiding the need for an external drain. However, the long-term safety and efficacy of this approach remain unclear.

Microbubble Contrast Agents Improve Detection of Active Hemorrhage.

Assessment of trauma-induced hemorrhage with ultrasound is particularly challenging outside of the clinic, where its detection is crucial. The current clinical standard for hematoma detection - the focused assessment with sonography of trauma (FAST) exam - does not aim to detect ongoing blood loss, and thus is unable to detect injuries of increasing severity. To enhance detection of active bleeding, we propose the use of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs), together with a novel flow phantom and contrast-sensitive processing techniques, to facilitate efficient, practical characterization of internal bleeding.

Glofitamab plus gemcitabine and oxaliplatin (GemOx) versus rituximab-GemOx for relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (STARGLO): a global phase 3, randomised, open-label trial.

Background: Glofitamab monotherapy induces durable remission in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma after two or more previous therapies, but has not previously been assessed as a second-line therapy. We investigated the efficacy and safety of glofitamab plus gemcitabine-oxaliplatin (Glofit-GemOx) versus rituximab (R)-GemOx in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Methods: The phase 3, randomised, open-label STARGLO trial was done at 62 centres in 13 countries in Asia and Australia, Europe, and North America.

Clinical and imaging characteristics associated with foveal neovascularization in proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

Purpose: To assess the prevalence of foveal neovascularization (FNV) and its associated clinical features in proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) eyes.

Methods: Cross-sectional observational study. Participants underwent ultra-widefield photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and swept-source OCT angiography (SS-OCTA).

Postmenopausal Endometriosis: Clinical Insights and Imaging Considerations.

Endometriosis is a chronic systemic condition characterized by the presence of ectopic endometrial-like tissue outside of the uterus. It occurs most often in reproductive-aged patients and less frequently in postmenopausal women. In postmenopausal patients, endometriosis is more common in those undergoing hormone replacement therapy or taking tamoxifen.

Capturing cell heterogeneity in representations of cell populations for image-based profiling using contrastive learning.

Image-based cell profiling is a powerful tool that compares perturbed cell populations by measuring thousands of single-cell features and summarizing them into profiles. Typically a sample is represented by averaging across cells, but this fails to capture the heterogeneity within cell populations. We introduce CytoSummaryNet: a Deep Sets-based approach that improves mechanism of action prediction by 30-68% in mean average precision compared to average profiling on a public dataset.

Sex Differences in Protein Biomarkers and Measures of Fat Distribution.

Background: Sex differences in obesity and fat distribution may in part explain differences in cardiovascular risk in men versus women. We sought to examine sex differences in the associations of obesity and adiposity measures with cardiovascular disease-related protein biomarkers.

Methods And Results: In a cross-sectional observational cohort study, we examined whether the association of obesity (body mass index [BMI] and waist circumference) and adiposity measures (visceral adipose tissue) with biomarkers demonstrates effect modification by sex using multiplicative interaction terms in multivariable linear regression models.

Neoantigen architectures define immunogenicity and drive immune evasion of tumors with heterogenous neoantigen expression.

Background: Intratumoral heterogeneity (ITH) and subclonal antigen expression blunt antitumor immunity and are associated with poor responses to immune-checkpoint blockade immunotherapy (ICB) in patients with cancer. The underlying mechanisms however thus far remained elusive, preventing the design of novel treatment approaches for patients with high ITH tumors.

Methods: We developed a mouse model of lung adenocarcinoma with defined expression of different neoantigens (NeoAg), enabling us to analyze how these impact antitumor T-cell immunity and to study underlying mechanisms.

Custom Large Language Models Improve Accuracy: Comparing Retrieval Augmented Generation and Artificial Intelligence Agents to Noncustom Models for Evidence-Based Medicine.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the value of custom methods, namely Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)-based Large Language Models (LLMs) and Agentic Augmentation, over standard LLMs in delivering accurate information using an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury case.

Methods: A set of 100 questions and answers based on the 2022 AAOS ACL guidelines were curated. Closed-source (open AI GPT4/GPT 3.

Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors for the Primary Prevention of Glaucoma in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Target Trial Emulation.

Purpose: Pleiotropic cardiovascular benefits of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) due to vascular remodeling effects have been demonstrated in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It is unclear whether a similar benefit may be seen for glaucoma. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of SGLT2i on the risk of glaucoma in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Initial Results of the Paul Ahmed Comparison (PAC) Study in Refractory Childhood Glaucoma.

Purpose: To compare the effectiveness and safety of the Paul glaucoma implant (PGI) to the Ahmed glaucoma valve (AGV) in managing refractory childhood glaucoma.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Two clinical centers.

Health-Related Behaviors and Risk of Common Age-Related Brain Diseases Across Severities of Genetic Risk.

Background And Objectives: The 21-point Brain Care Score (BCS) is an index that ranks behaviors and clinical measurements with the aim of encouraging lifestyle adjustments to lower the incidence of age-related brain disease, including stroke, late-life depression (LLD), and dementia. A higher BCS at baseline is associated with a lower risk of these outcomes. We aimed to investigate whether the associations between BCS and stroke, LLD, and dementia risks are independent of genetic predisposition for these conditions and quantify the effect of healthy lifestyle across genetic risk distributions for these outcomes.

Soft-sensor model development for CHO growth/production, intracellular metabolite, and glycan predictions.

Efficaciously assessing product quality remains time- and resource-intensive. Online Process Analytical Technologies (PATs), encompassing real-time monitoring tools and soft-sensor models, are indispensable for understanding process effects and real-time product quality. This research study evaluated three modeling approaches for predicting CHO cell growth and production, metabolites (extracellular, nucleotide sugar donors (NSD) and glycan profiles): Mechanistic based on first principle Michaelis-Menten kinetics (MMK), data-driven orthogonal partial least square (OPLS) and neural network machine learning (NN).

Research priorities for the study of atrial fibrillation during acute and critical illness: recommendations from the Symposium on Atrial Fibrillation in Acute and Critical Care.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia encountered in acute and critical illness and is associated with poor short and long-term outcomes. Given the consequences of developing AF, research into prevention, prediction and treatment of this arrhythmia in the critically ill are of great potential benefit, however, study of AF in critically ill patients faces unique challenges, leading to a sparse evidence base to guide management in this population. Major obstacles to the study of AF in acute and critical illness include absence of a common definition, challenges in designing studies that capture complex etiology and assess causality, lack of a clear outcome set, difficulites in recruitment in acute environments with respect to timing, consent, and workflow, and failure to embed studies into clinical care platforms and capitalize on emerging technologies.

Expanded Field OCT Angiography Biomarkers for Predicting Clinically Significant Outcomes in Non-Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy.

Purpose: To evaluate the utility of extended field swept-source Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (SS-OCTA) imaging biomarkers in predicting the occurrence of clinically significant outcomes in eyes with Non-Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy (NPDR).

Design: Retrospective clinical case-control study.

Methods: Single-center clinical study.