An engineered interleukin-11 decoy cytokine inhibits receptor signaling and proliferation in lung adenocarcinoma.

The cytokine interleukin (IL)-11 has been shown to play a role in promoting fibrosis and cancer, including lung adenocarcinoma, garnering interest as an attractive target for therapeutic intervention. We used combinatorial methods to engineer an IL-11 variant that binds with higher affinity to the IL-11 receptor and stimulates enhanced receptor-mediated cell signaling. Introduction of two additional point mutations ablates IL-11 ligand/receptor association with the gp130 coreceptor signaling complex, resulting in a high-affinity receptor antagonist.

4D-CT deformable image registration using unsupervised recursive cascaded full-resolution residual networks.

A novel recursive cascaded full-resolution residual network (RCFRR-Net) for abdominal four-dimensional computed tomography (4D-CT) image registration was proposed. The entire network was end-to-end and trained in the unsupervised approach, which meant that the deformation vector field, which presented the ground truth, was not needed during training. The network was designed by cascading three full-resolution residual subnetworks with different architectures.

End-to-end deep learning classification of vocal pathology using stacked vowels.

Objectives: Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology have increased the feasibility of classifying voice disorders using voice recordings as a screening tool. This work develops upon previous models that take in single vowel recordings by analyzing multiple vowel recordings simultaneously to enhance prediction of vocal pathology.

Methods: Voice samples from the Saarbruecken Voice Database, including three sustained vowels (/a/, /i/, /u/) from 687 healthy human participants and 334 dysphonic patients, were used to train 1-dimensional convolutional neural network models for multiclass classification of healthy, hyperfunctional dysphonia, and laryngitis voice recordings.

Systemic allergic contact dermatitis to palladium, platinum, and titanium: mechanisms, clinical manifestations, prevalence, and therapeutic approaches.

Contact dermatitis (CD) is an inflammatory skin disease of eczema that is elicited by chemicals or metal ions that have toxic effects without eliciting a T-cell response (contact elicitation) or by small reactive chemicals that modify proteins and induce innate and adaptive immune responses (contact allergens). The clinical condition is characterized by localized skin rash, pruritus, redness, swelling, and lesions, which are mainly detected by patch tests and lymphocyte stimulation. Heavy metals such as palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), and titanium (Ti) are ubiquitous in our environment.

Unfilled in emergency medicine: An analysis of the 2022 and 2023 Match by program accreditation, ownership, and geography.

Background: The two most recent National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) Match cycles saw a high number of initially unfilled emergency medicine (EM) residency positions. We sought to identify the risk of EM residency program characteristics including accreditation duration, primary clinical site ownership status, and geography pertaining to not initially filling all positions.

Methods: We performed a repeated cross-sectional observational study of EM residency programs participating in the 2022 and 2023 NRMP Match cycles and used publicly available data from the NRMP, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the U.

Successful treatment of orbital Langerhans cell histiocytosis with stereotactic radiosurgery: A case report and literature review.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare inflammatory myeloid neoplasm arising from the proliferation of pathologic Langerhans cells. LCH has a spectrum of presentations predominantly affecting male pediatric patients. As LCH is a relatively uncommon diagnosis, there is no standard of care for treatment of the disease and treatment is based largely on clinical judgment, lesion characteristics, and symptoms at presentation.

Cognitive and Motor Decline in Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson's Disease Dementia.

Background: There is a need to better understand the rate of cognitive and motor decline of Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease Dementia (PDD).

Objectives: To compare the rate of cognitive and motor decline in patients with DLB and PDD from the E-DLB Consortium and the Parkinson's Incidence Cohorts Collaboration (PICC) Cohorts.

Methods: The annual change in MMSE and MDS-UPDRS part III was estimated using linear mixed regression models in patients with at least one follow-up (DLB  = 837 and PDD  = 157).

Open drug discovery in Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) drug discovery has focused on a set of highly studied therapeutic hypotheses, with limited success. The heterogeneous nature of AD processes suggests that a more diverse, systems-integrated strategy may identify new therapeutic hypotheses. Although many target hypotheses have arisen from systems-level modeling of human disease, in practice and for many reasons, it has proven challenging to translate them into drug discovery pipelines.

Factors related to wellness and burnout in academic otolaryngology: A pre- and Post-COVID-19 analysis.

Objectives: Describe demographic and professional factors predictive of burnout in academic otolaryngology before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: In 2018 and 2020, cross-sectional surveys on physician wellness and burnout were distributed to faculty members of a single academic institution's otolaryngology department. Faculty were dichotomized into low and high burnout groups for 2018 ( = 8 high burnout, 19%) and 2020 ( = 11 high burnout, 37%).

Impact of Electronic Cigarettes on the Upper Aerodigestive Tract: A Comprehensive Review for Otolaryngology Providers.

Objective: The use and effects of electronic (e)-cigarettes (e-cigs) are particularly relevant for otolaryngology providers as tobacco plays a major role in benign and malignant diseases of the upper aerodigestive tract. This review aims to (1) summarize the recent policies regarding e-cigs and important patterns of use and (2) serve as a comprehensive resource for clinical providers on the known biologic and clinical effects of e-cigs on the upper aerodigestive tract.

Data Sources: PubMed/MEDLINE.

Computerized cognitive practice effects in relation to amyloid and tau in preclinical Alzheimer's disease: Results from a multi-site cohort.

Scalable cognitive paradigms that provide metrics such as the Computerized Cognitive Composite (C3) may be sensitive enough to relate to Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in the preclinical clinically unimpaired (CU) stage. We examined CU older adults ( = 3287) who completed alternate versions of the C3 approximately 51 days apart. A subset of CU with abnormal amyloid also completed tau positron emission tomography (PET) imaging.

Chitosan-based nanoscale systems for doxorubicin delivery: Exploring biomedical application in cancer therapy.

Green chemistry has been a growing multidisciplinary field in recent years showing great promise in biomedical applications, especially for cancer therapy. Chitosan (CS) is an abundant biopolymer derived from chitin and is present in insects and fungi. This polysaccharide has favorable characteristics, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, and ease of modification by enzymes and chemicals.

A cross-sectional study comparing the inflammatory profile of menstrual effluent vs. peripheral blood.

Background And Aims: Cytokine profiles of peripheral blood and other bodily fluids provide diagnostic indicators for assessing inflammatory processes. Menstrual effluent may provide a noninvasive source of biological material for monitoring cytokine levels in blood and in endometrial tissues. This pilot study investigated the potential of measuring cytokines in menstrual effluent, and compared the cytokine profiles of menstrual versus peripheral blood.

The development of a mobile app-focused deduplication strategy for the Apple Heart Study that informs recommendations for future digital trials.

An app-based clinical trial enrolment process can contribute to duplicated records, carrying data management implications. Our objective was to identify duplicated records in real time in the Apple Heart Study (AHS). We leveraged personal identifiable information (PII) to develop a dissimilarity score (DS) using the Damerau-Levenshtein distance.

Prospective clinical trials and novel therapies in the medical management of severe alcohol-associated hepatitis.

Content available: Author Interview and Audio Recording.

Toxoplasmosis and Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prevalence and Associations and Future Directions.

Background: A potential link between toxoplasmosis with schizophrenia (SCZ) has been extensively studied over the past 2 decades. Our study was aimed to determine whether, beyond an association, the field is primed for randomized clinical trials of anti- prophylaxis in seropositive patients with SCZ.

Methods: We performed a methodological appraisal of toxoplasmosis-SCZ association studies, a meta-analysis, and a compilation of claims and pathophysiologic hypotheses.

The impact of COVID-19 on presentation and diagnosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Objective: To analyze how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced trends in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) presentation and diagnosis-including referral patterns, stage at presentation, and time to diagnosis-over a longitudinal time course.

Setting: Multicenter tertiary care academic institution.

Methods: A retrospective review of patients with HNSCC presenting between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020 was performed.

Robotic-assisted laparoscopic removal of dermoid cyst mimicking an enlarged cystic mass in the seminal vesicle.

Introduction: Isolated seminal vesicle cysts not associated with Zinner syndrome is a rare disorder that can present initially with urinary obstructive symptoms or nonspecific groin pain.

Case Description: We present the uncommon case of a dermoid cyst mimicking a seminal vesicle cyst treated with robotic-assisted laparoscopic seminal vesiculectomy.

Conclusion: For dermoid cysts, surgical excision is the gold standard of treatment with a high cure rate and little risk of regrowth if spillage is avoided and full resection is completed.