Risk and Quality in Brachytherapy From a Technical Perspective.

Aims: To provide an overview of the history of incidents in brachytherapy and to describe the pillars in place to ensure that medical physicists deliver high-quality brachytherapy.

Materials And Methods: A review of the literature was carried out to identify reported incidents in brachytherapy, together with an evaluation of the structures and processes in place to ensure that medical physicists deliver high-quality brachytherapy. In particular, the role of education and training, the use of process and technical quality assurance and the role of international guidelines are discussed.

Global neurosurgery over a 60-year period: Conceptual foundations, time reference, emerging Co-ordinates and prospects for collaborative interventions in low and middle income countries.

Introduction: We evaluated salient initiatives invested in global neurosurgery over a 60-year period.

Research Question: What are the Phases, Achievements, Challenges, and Lessons of Global Neurosurgery.

Methods: A 60-year retrospective study from 1960 to 2020 analyzing the major phases, lessons, and progress notes.

Rituximab Infusion Timing, Cumulative Dose, and Hospitalization for COVID-19 in Persons With Multiple Sclerosis in Sweden.

This case-control study examines the risk of severe COVID-19 infection in individuals with multiple sclerosis who were receiving rituximab.

COVID-19 and Delayed Cerebral Ischemia-More in Common Than First Meets the Eye.

Since the arrival of the global COVID-19 pandemic scientists around the world have been working to understand the pathological mechanisms resulting from infection. There has gradually been an understanding that COVID-19 triggers a widespread endotheliopathy and that this can result in a widespread thrombosis and in particular a microthrombosis. The mechanisms involved in the microthrombosis are not confined to infection and there is evidence that patients with aneurysmal sub-arachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) also suffer from an endotheliopathy and microthrombosis.

Longitudinal Data in Patients with Niemann-Pick Type C Disease Under Combined High Intrathecal and Low Intravenous Dose of 2-hydroxylpropyl-β-cyclodextrin.

Niemann-Pick Type C disease (NPC) is a rare, incurable, autosomal-recessive, lysosomal storage disorder with protean and progressive neurovisceral manifestations characterized by accumulation of intracellular unesterified cholesterol. The investigational use of 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) in the treatment of NPC has shown promising results in improving life expectancy and reducing neurological damage in this patient population. This case report describes two children with the neurological form of NPC: a 5-year-old male patient in advanced stage of the disease and an 11-year-old female patient in moderately advanced stage.

Autoimmune manifestations among 461 patients with monogenic inborn errors of immunity.

Background: The inborn errors of immunity (IEIs) are a group of heterogeneous disorders mainly characterized by severe and recurrent infections besides other complications including autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. In this study, we aim to evaluate clinical, immunologic, and molecular data of monogenic IEI patients with and without autoimmune manifestations.

Methods: We have retrospectively screened cases of monogenic IEI in the Iranian PID registry for the occurrence of autoimmunity and immune dysregulation.

Medication Adherence in Patients With Severe Asthma Prescribed Oral Corticosteroids in the U-BIOPRED Cohort.

Background: Although estimates of suboptimal adherence to oral corticosteroids in asthma range from 30% to 50%, no ideal method for measurement exists; the impact of poor adherence in severe asthma is likely to be particularly high.

Research Questions: What is the prevalence of suboptimal adherence detected by self-reporting and direct measures? Is suboptimal adherence associated with disease activity?

Study Design And Methods: Data were included from individuals with severe asthma taking part in the U-BIOPRED (Unbiased Biomarkers for the Prediction of Respiratory Disease Outcomes) study and prescribed daily oral corticosteroids. Participants completed the Medication Adherence Report Scale, a five-item questionnaire used to grade adherence on a scale from 1 to 5, and provided a urine sample for analysis of prednisolone and metabolites by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Current and emerging disease-modulatory therapies and treatment targets for multiple sclerosis.

The treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), the most common chronic inflammatory, demyelinating and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS), continues to transform. In recent years, a number of novel and increasingly effective disease-modulatory therapies (DMTs) have been approved, including oral fumarates and selective sphingosine 1-phosphate modulators, as well as cell-depleting therapies such as cladribine, anti-CD20 and anti-CD52 monoclonals. Amongst DMTs in clinical development, inhibitors of Bruton's tyrosine kinase represent an entirely new emerging drug class in MS, with three different drugs entering phase III trials.

Monogenic Primary Immunodeficiency Disorder Associated with Common Variable Immunodeficiency and Autoimmunity.

Background: Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is the most frequent primary immunodeficiency disorder mainly characterized by recurrent bacterial infections besides other immunological defects including loss of or dysfunction of B cells and decreased immunoglobulin levels. In this study, our aim is to evaluate clinical, immunological, and molecular data of patients with a primary clinical diagnosis of CVID and autoimmune phenotype with a confirmed genetic diagnosis.

Methods: Among 297 patients with CVID, who were registered in the Iranian Primary Immunodeficiency Registry at Children's Medical Center Hospital in Iran, 83 patients have been genetically examined and 27 patients with autoimmunity and confirmed genetic mutations were selected for analysis.

The effects of meclizine on motion sickness revisited.

Aims: Antihistamines make up the first line of treatments against motion-sickness. Still, their efficacy and specific mechanism have come into question. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of meclizine on motion-sensitivity.

Evaluation of respiratory complications in patients with X-linked and autosomal recessive agammaglobulinemia.

Background: Congenital agammaglobulinemia is the first primary immunodeficiency disorder characterized by a defect in B lymphocyte development and subsequently decreased immunoglobulin levels. These patients are prone to suffer from recurrent infections mostly involving the respiratory tract. In this study, we aimed to describe in detail respiratory tract complications as the most prominent clinical feature among agammaglobulinemic patients.

Comprehensive assessment of respiratory complications in patients with common variable immunodeficiency.

Background: Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a heterogeneous group of disorders, characterized by recurrent upper and lower respiratory tract infections and some noninfectious clinical complications.

Objective: To provide a detailed evaluation of respiratory presentations and complications in a cohort of Iranian patients with CVID.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 245 CVID patients who were recorded in the Iranian primary immunodeficiency disorders registry network.

Correction to: The unexplained success of stentplasty vasospasm treatment : Insights using Mechanistic Mathematical Modeling.

Correction to: Clin Neuroradiol 2019 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00062-019-00776-2 The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake.

The unexplained success of stentplasty vasospasm treatment : Insights using Mechanistic Mathematical Modeling.

Background: Cerebral vasospasm (CVS) following subarachnoid hemorrhage occurs in up to 70% of patients. Recently, stents have been used to successfully treat CVS. This implies that the force required to expand spastic vessels and resolve vasospasm is lower than previously thought.

G2-lymphocyte chromosomal radiosensitivity in patients with LPS responsive beige-like anchor protein (LRBA) deficiency.

Lipopolysaccharide-responsive, beige-like anchor protein (LRBA) deficiency is an autosomal recessive primary immunodeficiency disease characterized by a CVID-like phenotype, particularly severe autoimmunity and inflammatory bowel disease. This study was undertaken to evaluate radiation sensitivity in 11 LRBA-deficient patients. Therefore, stimulated lymphocytes of the studied subjects were exposed to a low dose γ-radiation (100 cGy) in the G phase of the cell cycle and chromosomal aberrations were scored.

Oral oxycodone for pain after caesarean section: A randomized comparison with nurse-administered IV morphine in a pragmatic study.

Background and aims The present randomized open label parallel group study was conducted to evaluate if an oral oxycodone (OXY) regimen can be at least equally effective and as safe for postoperative analgesia after caesarean section (CS) as a standard of care program using nurse-administered intravenous morphine (IVM), followed by oral codeine. Methods Eighty women (40 + 40) were scheduled for elective CS under spinal anaesthesia. All patients received postoperative multimodal analgesic therapy, including ibuprofen and paracetamol.

The LUNA aneurysm embolization system for intracranial aneurysm treatment: short-term, mid-term and long-term clinical and angiographic results.

Background And Purpose: Intrasaccular aneurysm flow disruption represents an emerging endovascular approach to treat intracranial aneurysms. The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical and angiographic outcomes of using the LUNA aneurysm embolization system (AES) for treatment of intracranial aneurysms.

Materials And Methods: The LUNA AES Post-Market Clinical Follow-Up study is a prospective, multicenter, single-arm study that was designed to evaluate device safety and efficacy.

Systematic investigation for underlying causes of recurrent infections in children: surveillance of primary immunodeficiency.

Recurrent infections seem to be a common complaint in children who are referred to general practitioners and pediatricians offices. Detection of primary immunodeficiencies (PID) etiology is very important for achieving appropriate diagnosis and treatment of these patients. The absence of appropriate treatment could lead to subsequent complications, in a hospital inpatient and/or outpatient settings.

A generic TG-186 shielded applicator for commissioning model-based dose calculation algorithms for high-dose-rate Ir brachytherapy.

Purpose: A joint working group was created by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO), and the Australasian Brachytherapy Group (ABG) with the charge, among others, to develop a set of well-defined test case plans and perform calculations and comparisons with model-based dose calculation algorithms (MBDCAs). Its main goal is to facilitate a smooth transition from the AAPM Task Group No. 43 (TG-43) dose calculation formalism, widely being used in clinical practice for brachytherapy, to the one proposed by Task Group No.

Measurement of Health-Related Quality of Life in Primary Antibody-Deficient Patients.

Background: Primary immunodeficiency diseases are a group of disorders that result from a variety of defects of the immune system. Primary antibody deficiencies (PADs) are the most common forms of these disorders. Occurrence of recurrent infections, autoimmune diseases, cancers, and lymphoproliferative disorders is higher in PAD patients.