Dopamine genetic risk scores and psychiatric symptoms: Interacting risk factors for impulse control behaviours in de novo Parkinson's disease.

Up to 45% of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience impulse control disorders (ICDs), characterized by a loss of voluntary control over impulses, drives or temptations. This study aimed to investigate whether previously identified genetic and psychiatric risk factors interact towards the development of ICDs in PD. A total of 278 de novo PD patients (ICD-free at enrollment) were selected from the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative database.

Design and maintenance of medical oxygen concentrators in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.

Background: Oxygen therapy is critical and vital treatment for hypoxemia and respiratory distress, however, access to reliable oxygen systems remains limited in SSA. Despite WHO initiatives that distributed over 30,000 OC oxygen concentrators worldwide, SSA faces significant challenges related to their maintenance and use, due to harsh environmental conditions, technical skill shortages and inadequate infrastructure. This review aims to systematically identify and assess the literature on OC design adaptations, maintenance challenges, and knowledge gaps in SSA, providing actionable recommendations to inform innovative and context-sensitive solutions to improve healthcare delivery in the region.

Health-related quality of life associated with fatigue, physical activity and activity pacing in adults with chronic conditions.

Background: Fatigue and inactivity are linked to decreased health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in chronic conditions. A multidimensional approach to activity pacing may improve HRQoL by promoting physical activity (PA) and alleviating fatigue. Addressing fatigue across chronic conditions is crucial, especially when underlying causes are unknown.

Effect of early administration of fibrinogen replacement therapy in traumatic haemorrhage: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials with narrative synthesis of observational studies.

Background: In severely injured trauma patients, hypofibrinoginaemia is associated with increased mortality. There is no evidence-based consensus for what constitutes optimal fibrinogen therapy, treatment dose or timing of administration. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the effects of early fibrinogen replacement, either cryoprecipitate or fibrinogen concentrate (FgC) on mortality, transfusion requirements and deep venous thrombosis (DVT).

Experiences, perceptions and ethical considerations of the malaria infection study in Thailand.

Background: Thailand has made significant progress in malaria control efforts in the past decade, with a decline in the number of reported cases. However, due to cross-border movements over the past 5 years, reported malaria cases in Thailand have risen. The Malaria Infection Study in Thailand (MIST) involves deliberate infection of healthy volunteers with Plasmodium vivax malaria parasites, and the assessment of the efficacy of potential vaccine and drug candidates in order to understand acquired protection against malaria parasites.

Rationale and design of the HOVON 170 DLBCL-ANTICIPATE trial: preventing anthracycline-induced cardiac dysfunction with dexrazoxane.

Background: Dexrazoxane has been studied for its ability to prevent anthracycline-induced cardiac dysfunction (AICD) in several trials but its use in clinical practice remains limited. This is related to the low to moderate quality of the generated evidence, safety concerns and restricted prescribing indications. Additional randomized trials are needed before this drug can be routinely integrated into cardio-oncology clinical practice.

Influence of religion and spirituality on head and neck cancer patients and their caregivers: a protocol for a scoping review.

Introduction: Head and neck cancers (HNC) are devastating, thus imposing a negative impact on the appearance of an individual as well as vital activities such as eating, swallowing, speaking, and breathing. Therefore, HNC patients undergo distress, while their caregivers become overburdened. Religion and spirituality can be helpful for patients and their caregivers from diverse cultural backgrounds to cope with cancer.

Discovering patient groups in sequential electronic healthcare data using unsupervised representation learning.

Introduction: Unsupervised feature learning methods inspired by natural language processing (NLP) models are capable of constructing patient-specific features from longitudinal Electronic Health Records (EHR).

Design: We applied document embedding algorithms to real-world paediatric intensive care (PICU) EHR data to extract patient-specific features from 1853 patients' PICU journeys using 647 unique lab tests and medication events. We evaluated the clinical utility of the patient features via a K-means clustering analysis.

The acceptability of a novel seismocardiography device for measuring VO max in a workplace setting: a mixed methods approach.

Background: Workplace health screening rarely includes measures of cardiorespiratory fitness, despite it being a greater predictor of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality than other routinely measured risk factors. This study aimed to determine the comparative acceptability of using a novel seismocardiography device to measure cardiorespiratory fitness via VO max during a workplace health check.

Methods: Participants were invited to participate in workplace health screening sessions where VO max was assessed by both seismocardiography at rest and sub-maximal exercise testing, in order for acceptability of both to be compared across multiple domains.

Which dietary shifts to improve nutritional quality while reducing diet cost in the French West Indies?

Background: The French West Indies are facing increasing rates of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. Food prices are more than 30% higher compared with mainland France, while a large part of the population is socioeconomically disadvantaged. The affordability of a healthy diet is a key issue.

Factors influencing role preferences in decision-making of healthy women with BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants: subanalysis from a randomised controlled decision coaching trial.

Background: Patients who actively engage in their medical decision-making processes can experience better health outcomes. This exploratory study aimed to identify predictors of preferred and actual roles in decision-making in healthy women with BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants (PVs).

Methods: Women with BRCA1/2 PVs without a history of breast and/or ovarian cancer were recruited in six centres across Germany.

Barriers and facilitators to engagement with between-session work for low-intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)-based interventions: a qualitative exploration of practitioner perceptions.

Background: To address the growing demand for psychological treatment, healthcare providers are increasingly utilising low-intensity interventions, characterised by reduced practitioner contact and emphasis on independent patient engagement with therapeutic materials through between-session work (BSW). While BSW is critical for maximising treatment outcomes, patients and practitioners report challenges with its completion. Research identifying factors influencing between-session engagement in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has largely focused on high-intensity CBT, limiting understanding within low-intensity contexts.

Community benefits of mass distribution of three types of dual-active-ingredient long-lasting insecticidal nets against malaria prevalence in Tanzania: evidence from a 3-year cluster-randomized controlled trial.

Background: Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) were once fully effective for the prevention of malaria; however, mosquitoes have developed resistance to pyrethroids, the main class of insecticides used on nets. Dual active ingredient LLINs (dual-AI LLINs) have been rolled out as an alternative to pyrethroid (PY)-only LLINs to counteract this. Understanding the minimum community usage at which these LLINs elicit an effect that also benefits non-users against malaria infection is important.

Inferring the energy cost of resistance to parasitic infection and its link to a trade-off.

Background: In infected hosts, immune responses trigger a systemic energy reallocation away from energy storage and growth, to fuel a costly defense program. The exact energy costs of immune defense are however unknown in general. Life history theory predicts that such costs underpin trade-offs between host disease resistance and other fitness related traits, yet this has been seldom assessed.

Artificial intelligence methods applied to longitudinal data from electronic health records for prediction of cancer: a scoping review.

Background: Early detection and diagnosis of cancer are vital to improving outcomes for patients. Artificial intelligence (AI) models have shown promise in the early detection and diagnosis of cancer, but there is limited evidence on methods that fully exploit the longitudinal data stored within electronic health records (EHRs). This review aims to summarise methods currently utilised for prediction of cancer from longitudinal data and provides recommendations on how such models should be developed.

Raynaud Syndrome Associated with Medication for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Systematic Review.

Background: Raynaud syndrome (RS) is a peripheral vasculopathy characterised be impaired acral perfusion typically manifesting as skin discolouration with pallor, cyanosis and/or erythema, and increased sensitivity to cold. RS may be primary or secondary to systemic disease, lifestyle and environmental factors or medication. RS has been reported with medication to treat ADHD, but we found no recent comprehensive overview of the literature.

Acute kidney injury in paediatric kidney transplant recipients.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) in paediatric kidney transplant recipients is common. Infection including urinary tract infection (UTI) and rejection are the most common causes in children. Surgical complications often cause AKI early post-transplant, whereas BK polyomavirus nephropathy rarely occurs in the first month post-transplant.

Population-based, first-tier genomic newborn screening in the maternity ward.

The rapid development of therapies for severe and rare genetic conditions underlines the need to incorporate first-tier genetic testing into newborn screening (NBS) programs. A workflow was developed to screen newborns for 165 treatable pediatric disorders by deep sequencing of regions of interest in 405 genes. The prospective observational BabyDetect pilot project was launched in September 2022 in a maternity ward of a public hospital in the Liege area, Belgium.

An online multidomain lifestyle intervention to prevent cognitive decline in at-risk older adults: a randomized controlled trial.

Effective, scalable dementia prevention interventions are needed to address modifiable risk factors given global burden of dementia and challenges in developing disease-modifying treatments. A single-blind randomized controlled trial assessed an online multidomain lifestyle intervention to prevent cognitive decline over 3 years. Participants were dementia-free community-dwelling Australians aged 55-77 years with modifiable dementia risk factors.

Aging and word predictability during reading: Evidence from eye movements and fixation-related potentials.

The use of context to facilitate the processing of words is recognized as a hallmark of skilled reading. This capability is also hypothesized to change with older age because of cognitive changes across the lifespan. However, research investigating this issue using eye movements or event-related potentials (ERPs) has produced conflicting findings.

Hearing loss and risk of major osteoporotic fracture: a population-based cohort study in the United Kingdom.

Unlabelled: Using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, our cohort study matched 237,297 individuals with hearing loss (HL) to 829,431 without HL. The study found an 8-10% higher risk of major osteoporotic fracture in individuals with HL compared to those without. Additionally, within the HL cohort, we identified risk factors for potential inclusion in fracture risk models.

Associations between common genetic variants and income provide insights about the socio-economic health gradient.

We conducted a genome-wide association study on income among individuals of European descent (N = 668,288) to investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and health disparities. We identified 162 genomic loci associated with a common genetic factor underlying various income measures, all with small effect sizes (the Income Factor). Our polygenic index captures 1-5% of income variance, with only one fourth due to direct genetic effects.

Ginsenoside Rd protects against acute liver injury by regulating the autophagy NLRP3 inflammasome pathway.

Ginsenoside Rd (Rd) is a bioactive compound predominantly found in Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer and Panax notoginseng (Burkill) F.

Enhancing immunity during ageing by targeting interactions within the tissue environment.

Immunity declines with age. This results in a higher risk of age-related diseases, diminished ability to respond to new infections and reduced response to vaccines. The causes of this immune dysfunction are cellular senescence, which occurs in both lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissue, and chronic, low-grade inflammation known as 'inflammageing'.