Multimodal home-based rehabilitation intervention after discharge from inpatient geriatric rehabilitation (GeRas): study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Background: Geriatric rehabilitation aims to maintain the functional reserves of older adults in order to optimize social participation and prevent disability. After discharge from inpatient geriatric rehabilitation, patients are at high risk for decreased physical capacity, increased vulnerability, and limitations in mobility. As a result, ageing in place becomes uncertain for a plethora of patients after discharge from geriatric rehabilitation and effective strategies to prevent physical decline are required.

Early Childhood Care in the Former East Germany and Mental Stress in Adulthood.

Background: It is still debated in Germany whether early childhood care outside the family might cause mental stress in adulthood. In the German Democratic Republic (GDR-the former East Germany before unification), children were often cared for outside the family from a very early age.

Methods: To determine the relation between early childhood care outside the family and mental stress in adulthood, we carried out a survey among 1575 persons who were born and socialized in the GDR.

Functional outcomes after intramedullary nailing (C-Nail®) of severe calcaneal fractures with mean follow-up of 36 months.

Purpose: Calcaneal fractures (CFs) are rare but potentially debilitating injuries. Apart from the open, far lateral or sinus tarsi approach, operative treatment can be performed minimally invasive and percutaneously with intramedullary nailing. In this study, we sought to investigate the functional outcome of severe CFs treated with the C-Nail® implant.

Clinical Course and Management of Patients with Emergency Surgery Treated with Direct Oral Anticoagulants or Vitamin K Antagonists-Results of the German Prospective RADOA-Registry.

(1) Background: The clinical management of anticoagulated patients treated with direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) or Vitamin K antagonists (VKA) needing emergency surgery is challenging. (2) Methods: The prospective German RADOA registry investigated treatment strategies in DOAC- or VKA-treated patients needing emergency surgery within 24 h after admission. Effectiveness was analysed by clinical endpoints including major bleeding.

Studying serum neurofilament light chain levels as a potential new biomarker for small fiber neuropathy.

Background And Purpose: Diagnosing small fiber neuropathies can be challenging. To address this issue, whether serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) could serve as a potential biomarker of damage to epidermal Aδ- and C-fibers was tested.

Methods: Serum NfL levels were assessed in 30 patients diagnosed with small fiber neuropathy and were compared to a control group of 19 healthy individuals.

Vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of narcolepsy.

Background And Objective: No study on neurostimulation in narcolepsy is available until now. Arousal- and wake-promoting effects of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) have been demonstrated in animal experiments and are well-known as side effects of VNS therapy in epilepsy and depression. The objective was to evaluate the therapeutic effect of VNS on daily sleepiness and cataplexies in narcolepsy.

Change of Intraocular Pressure Over 5 Years and its Relationship to Cardiovascular Parameters: Results From the Gutenberg Health Study.

Purpose: To investigate the longitudinal change in intraocular pressure (IOP) over 5 years and its relationship with cardiovascular parameters in a population-based sample in Germany.

Methods: The Gutenberg Health Study is a prospective, observational, single-center cohort study. The sample was equally stratified for sex, residence, and age decade.

Report of the European Medicines Agency Conference on RNA-Based Medicines.

RNA-based medicines have potential to treat a large variety of diseases, and research in the field is very dynamic. Proactively, The European Medicines Agency (EMA) organized a virtual conference on February 2, 2023 to promote the development of RNA-based medicines. The initiative addresses the goal of the EMA Regulatory Science Strategy to 2025 to "catalyse the integration of science and technology in medicines development.

The effects of effort-reward imbalance on the job, overcommitment, and income on life satisfaction in Germany from a longitudinal perspective.

Background: The effort-reward imbalance at work model offers a theoretical and analytical framework to estimate the subjective perception of work-related stress. High demands and low rewards in return can harm mental and physical health, well-being, and life satisfaction. According to the theory, overcommitment partially explains why employees endure such straining jobs.

To trust or not to trust in the thrall of the COVID-19 pandemic: Conspiracy endorsement and the role of adverse childhood experiences, epistemic trust, and personality functioning.

Rationale: Conspiracy endorsement is a public health challenge for the successful containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. While usually considered a societal phenomenon, little is known about the equally important developmental backdrops and personality characteristics like mistrust that render an individual prone to conspiracy endorsement. There is a growing body of evidence implying a detrimental role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) - a highly prevalent developmental burden - in the development of epistemic trust and personality functioning.

Carbon Ion and Photon Radiation Therapy Show Enhanced Antitumoral Therapeutic Efficacy With Neoantigen RNA-LPX Vaccines in Preclinical Colon Carcinoma Models.

Purpose: Personalized liposome-formulated mRNA vaccines (RNA-LPX) are a powerful new tool in cancer immunotherapy. In preclinical tumor models, RNA-LPX vaccines are known to achieve potent results when combined with conventional X-ray radiation therapy (XRT). Densely ionizing radiation used in carbon ion radiation therapy (CIRT) may induce distinct effects in combination with immunotherapy compared with sparsely ionizing X-rays.

IL-17A-driven psoriasis is critically dependent on IL-36 signaling.

Plaque psoriasis is an autoinflammatory and autoimmune skin disease, affecting 1-3% of the population worldwide. Previously, high levels of IL-36 family cytokines were found in psoriatic skin lesions, thereby contributing to keratinocyte hyperproliferation and infiltration of immune cells such as neutrophils. While treatment with anti-IL36 receptor (IL36R) antibodies was recently approved for generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP), it remains unclear, if targeting the IL36R might also inhibit plaque psoriasis.

Cardiac, possible cardiac, and likely non-cardiac origin of chest pain : A hitherto underestimated parameter in German chest pain units.

Background: Current guidelines emphasize the diagnostic value of non-cardiac or possibly cardiac chest pain. The goal of this analysis was to determine whether German chest pain units (CPUs) adequately address conditions with "atypical" chest pain in existing diagnostic structures.

Method: A total of 11,734 patients from the German CPU registry were included.

Direct antigen presentation is the canonical pathway of cytomegalovirus CD8 T-cell priming regulated by balanced immune evasion ensuring a strong antiviral response.

CD8 T cells are important antiviral effectors in the adaptive immune response to cytomegaloviruses (CMV). Naïve CD8 T cells can be primed by professional antigen-presenting cells (pAPCs) alternatively by "direct antigen presentation" or "antigen cross-presentation". In the case of direct antigen presentation, viral proteins are expressed in infected pAPCs and enter the classical MHC class-I (MHC-I) pathway of antigen processing and presentation of antigenic peptides.

Quantitative multi-energy micro-CT: A simulation and phantom study for simultaneous imaging of four different contrast materials using an energy integrating detector.

Emerging from the development of single-energy Computed Tomography (CT) and Dual-Energy Computed Tomography, Multi-Energy Computed Tomography (MECT) is a promising tool allowing advanced material and tissue decomposition and thereby enabling the use of multiple contrast materials in preclinical research. The scope of this work was to evaluate whether a usual preclinical micro-CT system is applicable for the decomposition of different materials using MECT together with a matrix-inversion method and how different changes of the measurement-environment affect the results. A matrix-inversion based algorithm to differentiate up to five materials (iodine, iron, barium, gadolinium, residual material) by applying four different acceleration voltages/energy levels was established.

Human epithelial lung cell toxicity assessment of collected graphite particles from an iron casting industry (in vitro study).

Workers in the iron casting industries are exposed to various chemicals, especially graphite in furnace process. This study aims to investigate the toxic effects of graphite particles on human lung cells. Particle characteristics were confirmed by electron microscope and light scattering.

Brain connectivity networks underlying resting heart rate variability in acute ischemic stroke.

Acute strokes can affect heart rate variability (HRV), the mechanisms how are not well understood. We included 42 acute stroke patients (2-7 days after ischemic stroke, mean age 66 years, 16 women). For analysis of HRV, 20 matched controls (mean age 60.

[Schätzung der Wirksamkeit der Grippeimpfung anhand von Sekundärdaten: Eine Kohortenstudie und Propensity-Score-Matching-Analyse von Leistungsdaten aus Baden-Württemberg].

Ziel war es die Wirksamkeit der Influenza-Impfung (VE) für die Grippesaison 2014/2015 auf Grundlage von Routinedaten aus Krankenkassendatensatz zu schätzen und zu replizieren. Zusätzlich sollten methodische Aspekte untersucht werden. Es wurden Abrechnungsdaten von 2,64 Millionen Versicherten der AOK Baden-Württemberg mit dortigem Wohnsitz ab 15 Jahren analysiert.

Internal Morphology of Mandibular Second Premolars Using Micro-Computed Tomography.

To examine root canal morphology of mandibular second premolars (Mn2P) of a mixed Swiss-German population by means of micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). Root canal configuration (RCC) of 102 Mn2P were investigated using micro-CT unit (CT 40; SCANCO Medical AG, Brüttisellen, Switzerland) with 3D software imaging (VGStudio Max 2.2; Volume Graphics GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany), described with a four-digit system code indicating the main root canal from coronal to apical thirds and the number of main foramina.

A Systematic Review of Lipid-Focused Cardiovascular Disease Research: Trends and Opportunities.

Lipids are important modifiers of protein function, particularly as parts of lipoproteins, which transport lipophilic substances and mediate cellular uptake of circulating lipids. As such, lipids are of particular interest as blood biological markers for cardiovascular disease (CVD) as well as for conditions linked to CVD such as atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, obesity and dietary states. Notably, lipid research is particularly well developed in the context of CVD because of the relevance and multiple causes and risk factors of CVD.

Prospective Comparison of Handheld Ultrasound Devices from Different Manufacturers with Respect to B-Scan Quality and Clinical Significance for Various Abdominal Sonography Questions.

Background: Handheld ultrasound (HHUS) devices have chiefly been deployed in emergency medicine, where they are considered a valid tool. The data situation is less clear in the case of internal questions in abdominal sonography. In our study, we investigate whether HHUS devices from different manufacturers differ in their B-scan quality, and whether any differences are relevant for the significance of an internal ultrasound examination.

Health Economic Evaluation of an Online-Based Motivational Program to Reduce Problematic Media Use and Promote Treatment Motivation for Internet Use Disorder-Results of the OMPRIS Study.

Internet Use Disorders (IUD) have a relevant effect on national economies. In the randomized, controlled, multicenter, prospective, and single-blinded OMPRIS study (pre-registration number DRKS00019925; Innovation Fund of the Joint Federal Committee of Germany, grant number 01VSF18043), a four-week online program to reduce media addiction symptoms, was evaluated for cost-effectiveness. The intervention group (IG) was compared to a waiting control group (WCG) from German statutory health insurance (SHI) and a societal perspective.