4,667 results match your criteria: "University of Exeter College of Medicine & Health[Affiliation]"

Purpose: ATM germline pathogenic variants (GPVs) are associated with a moderately increased risk of female breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer. Resources for managing ATM heterozygotes in clinical practice are limited.

Methods: An international workgroup developed a clinical practice resource to guide management of ATM heterozygotes using peer-reviewed publications and expert opinion.

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  • The study aimed to assess changes in cardiac [123I]-metaiodobenzylguanidine uptake in individuals with mild cognitive impairment with Lewy bodies (MCI-LB) who initially had normal scans.
  • Eight participants underwent follow-up scans 2 to 4 years after their baseline assessments, with all repeat scans also returning normal results.
  • Despite normal scans, three participants showed a significant decrease in uptake (over 10%) and the overall mean change in uptake was a decline of 5.2%.
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Global trends indicate that takeaway food is commonly accessible in neighbourhood food environments. Local governments in England can use spatial planning to manage the opening of new takeaway outlets in 'takeaway management zones around schools' (known sometimes as 'exclusion zones'). We analysed data from the 2021 International Food Policy Study to investigate public acceptability of takeaway management zones around schools.

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Purpose: To seek agreement on evidence-based, family-centered, clinical considerations for Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO) prescription and monitoring for young, ambulatory children with cerebral palsy.

Materials And Methods: An online Delphi survey focusing on parent, clinician, and researcher perspectives on specific processes and outcomes concerning AFO prescription and monitoring practices was conducted over two rounds. Participants rated each survey item as critical, important but not critical, or less important.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the right of individuals with dementia and their family caregivers to access interventions that enhance their participation in society. Reablement is an approach that enables older people to participate in meaningful daily and social activities. Over the past decade, a growing body of evidence has underscored reablement as a promising approach within dementia care, including positive outcomes for people with dementia and their family caregivers, and cost-effectiveness.

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  • The study investigates type 1 diabetes (T1D) in patients without high-risk HLA-DR3 or -DR4 haplotypes, identifying genetic factors and improving risk prediction for this group.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 12,316 non-DR3/DR4 individuals, discovering 18 T1D risk variants that affect disease development differently based on HLA status and showing a greater polygenic burden for non-DR3/DR4 patients.
  • A newly developed genetic risk score (GRS) significantly outperformed existing scores in predicting T1D for those without DR3/DR4, highlighting the need for tailored approaches in understanding and predicting the disease.
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Aim: The EarLy Surveillance for Autoimmune (ELSA) study aims to explore the feasibility and acceptability of UK paediatric general population screening for type 1 diabetes.

Methods: We aim to screen 20,000 children aged 3-13 years for islet-specific autoantibodies through dried blood spot sample collection at home, hospital or community settings. Children with two or more autoantibodies are offered metabolic staging via oral glucose challenge testing.

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Studies across various pathogens highlight the importance of pathogen genetic differences in disease manifestation. In the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, sequence type (ST) associates with patient outcome. We performed a meta-analysis of four genomic studies and identified overlapping gene regions associated with virulence, suggesting the importance of these gene regions in cryptococcal disease in diverse clinical isolates.

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The pituitary gland produces and secretes a variety of hormones that are essential to life, such as for the regulation of growth and development, metabolism, reproduction, and the stress response. This is achieved through an intricate signalling interplay between the brain and peripheral feedback signals that shape pituitary cell excitability by regulating the ion channel properties of these cells. In addition, endocrine anterior pituitary cells spontaneously fire action potentials to regulate the intracellular calcium ([Ca]) level, an essential signalling conduit for hormonal secretion.

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Background: Takeaway food is often high in calories and served in portion sizes that exceed public health recommendations for fat, salt and sugar. This food is widely accessible in the neighbourhood food environment. As of 2019, of all local authorities in England (n=325), 41 had adopted urban planning interventions that can allow them to manage the opening of new takeaway outlets in "takeaway management zones around schools" (known elsewhere as "exclusion zones").

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  • The study explores the implementation of a digital health intervention (DHI) designed for supporting self-management among long COVID patients, involving a patient app and a clinician dashboard.
  • Using qualitative analysis and Normalisation Process Theory, researchers found that the DHI was adaptable to various healthcare settings, enhancing collaboration among healthcare professionals while acknowledging the necessity for in-person care.
  • The findings suggest that DHIs can potentially transform traditional healthcare engagement patterns, emphasizing the importance of organizational context and individual experiences in successful implementation.
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Background And Objective: Post-operative periprosthetic femoral fractures (POPFF) present a growing challenge for healthcare services, but there are limited national data on patient profiles, short-term outcomes, and post-discharge follow-up. We aimed to fill these gaps.

Methods: Using Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), we identified POPFF discharges from hospitals in England for patients aged 18 and above between April 2016 and December 2022.

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Brillouin Light Scattering (BLS) spectroscopy is a non-invasive, non-contact, label-free optical technique that can provide information on the mechanical properties of a material on the sub-micron scale. Over the last decade it has seen increased applications in the life sciences, driven by the observed significance of mechanical properties in biological processes, the realization of more sensitive BLS spectrometers and its extension to an imaging modality. As with other spectroscopic techniques, BLS measurements not only detect signals characteristic of the investigated sample, but also of the experimental apparatus, and can be significantly affected by measurement conditions.

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Background: Mild behavioral impairment (MBI) has been associated with global brain atrophy, but the regional neural correlates of MBI symptoms are less clear, particularly among community-dwelling older individuals without dementia.

Objective: Our objective was to examine the associations of MBI domains with gray matter (GM) volumes in a large population-based sample of older adults without dementia.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of 1445 community-dwelling older adults in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study who underwent detailed neurocognitive assessment and brain magnetic resonance imaging in 2011-2013.

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Impaired development of memory B cells and antibody responses in humans and mice deficient in PD-1 signaling.

Immunity

December 2024

Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia; School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Clinical Immunogenomics Research Consortium Australasia (CIRCA), Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • T follicular helper (Tfh) cells, which are important for antibody production, rely heavily on the immunoreceptor PD-1, and its deficiency leads to weakened Tfh functions and impaired immune responses in mice.
  • Individuals lacking PD-1 or PD-L1 demonstrate fewer memory B cells and diminished antibody responses, highlighting the critical role of these molecules in immune system functionality.
  • PD-1 influences both the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of B cell memory and antibody production, suggesting that disruptions in PD-1 signaling can lead to complications in immune responses, especially during anti-PD-1-PD-L1 therapies.
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SARS-CoV-2 is highly transmissible and affects the respiratory system. People with COVID-19 are at higher risk of physical and mental health conditions, which could impact bone health. The aim of this review was to explore the effects of COVID-19 on BMD, BTMs, and joints.

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  • Mycotoxin cocontamination poses significant health and economic risks globally, with six mycotoxins being particularly toxic.
  • Lac-W, an enzyme, can degrade these mycotoxins but needs enhancement for better efficiency.
  • The study finds that adding redox mediators drastically improves Lac-W's ability to degrade aflatoxin B and zearalenone quickly and safely, making it a promising solution for reducing mycotoxin contamination in food and feed.
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Background And Objectives: Minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIO) offers a less traumatic resection for cancer patients resulting in improved quality of life. Concerns about the oncological efficacy of the procedure and potential impact on survival may have limited its wider adoption. This study reports survival outcomes fifteen years after patients underwent a total MIO for esophageal cancer.

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Orofacial pain (OFP) is an ache in the front part of the head and typically has musculoskeletal, dental, neural, or sinogenic origin. Dry needling (DN) is the insertion of a solid sterile fine needle through the skin aimed at deactivating the myofascial trigger points has extensively been studied in randomized clinical trials (RCTs). This systematic review was aimed at evaluating the evidence base for the effectiveness of DN for OFP.

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  • Percutaneous cholecystostomy (PC) is effective for controlling sepsis in patients with severe acute calculous cholecystitis, but long-term treatment outcomes remain uncertain.
  • A study analyzed 102 patients who underwent PC, comparing those who had laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) later with those who received conservative management, showing no significant difference in readmission rates for biliary issues.
  • Results indicated that interval LC led to significantly lower rates of late mortality (13.3% vs. 61.9%) and higher survival rates after three years (75% for LC vs. 38% for conservative management).
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Although rare neurodevelopmental conditions have a large Mendelian component, common genetic variants also contribute to risk. However, little is known about how this polygenic risk is distributed among patients with these conditions and their parents nor its interplay with rare variants. It is also unclear whether polygenic background affects risk directly through alleles transmitted from parents to children, or whether indirect genetic effects mediated through the family environment also play a role.

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Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) and coxsackievirus A6 (CVA6) primarily cause hand, foot and mouth disease and have emerged to cause potential fatal neurological and systemic manifestations. However, limited surveillance data collected through passive surveillance systems hampers characterization of their epidemiological dynamics. We fit a series of catalytic models to age-stratified seroprevalence data for EV-A71 and CVA6 collected in England at three time points (2006, 2011 and 2017) to estimate the force of infection (FOI) over time and assess possible changes in transmission.

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Background: In England, the number of takeaway food outlets ('takeaways') has been increasing for over two decades. Takeaway management zones around schools are an effective way to restrict the growth of new takeaways but their impacts on population health have not been estimated.

Methods: To model the impact of takeaway management zones on health, we used estimates of change in and exposure to takeaways (across home, work, and commuting buffers) based on a previous evaluation suggesting that 50% of new outlets were prevented from opening because of management zones.

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In recent years, there has been an increased interest in remote testing methods for quantifying individual differences in interoception, the perception of the body's internal state. Hampering the adoption of remote methods are concerns as to the quality of data obtained remotely. Using data from several studies, we sought to compare the performance of individuals who completed the Phase Adjustment Task-a new measure of cardiac interoceptive accuracy that can be administered via a smartphone application-supervised in a laboratory against those who completed the task remotely.

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