International Validation of a Novel PEACE Scale to Improve the Quality of Upper Gastrointestinal Mucosal Inspection During Endoscopy.

Introduction: The performance of a high quality esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is dependent on the mucosal cleanliness. Recently, the Polprep: Effective Assessment of Cleanliness in EGD (PEACE) scale was created to assess the degree of mucosal cleanliness during EGD. The aim of this study was to validate this scoring system in a cohort of international endoscopists.

Prenatal Tobacco Exposure, Brain Subcortical Volumes, and Gray-White Matter Contrast.

Importance: Maternal tobacco use during pregnancy (MTDP) remains a major public health challenge. However, the complete spectrum of effects of MTDP is not fully understood.

Objectives: To examine the longitudinal associations of MTDP and children's brain morphometric subcortical volume and gray-white matter contrast (GWC) development.

Prostaglandin E1 administration post liver transplantation and renal outcomes: A retrospective single center experience.

Background: Prostaglandin E1 (PGE1), or alprostadil, is a potent vasodilator that improves hepatic blood flow and reduces ischemia-reperfusion injury post-liver transplantation (LT). However, the benefits of PGE1 on renal function after LT have not yet been well described.

Aim: To assess the impact of PGE1 administration on renal function in patients who underwent liver or liver-kidney transplant.

The current socioeconomic and regulatory landscape of immune effector cell therapies.

Immune cell effector therapies, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells, T-cell receptor (TCR) T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and macrophage-based therapies, represent a transformative approach to cancer treatment, harnessing the immune system to target and eradicate malignant cells. CAR-T cell therapy, the most established among these, involves engineering T cells to express CARs specific to cancer cell antigens, showing remarkable efficacy in hematologic malignancies like leukemias, B-cell lymphomas, and multiple myeloma. Similarly, TCR-modified therapies, which reprogram T cells to recognize intracellular tumor antigens presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules, offer promise for a range of solid tumors.

Structural variant allelic heterogeneity in MECP2 duplication syndrome provides insight into clinical severity and variability of disease expression.

Background: MECP2 Duplication Syndrome, also known as X-linked intellectual developmental disorder Lubs type (MRXSL; MIM: 300260), is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by copy number gains spanning MECP2. Despite varying genomic rearrangement structures, including duplications and triplications, and a wide range of duplication sizes, no clear correlation exists between DNA rearrangement and clinical features. We had previously demonstrated that up to 38% of MRXSL families are characterized by complex genomic rearrangements (CGRs) of intermediate complexity (2 ≤ copy number variant breakpoints < 5), yet the impact of these genomic structures on regulation of gene expression and phenotypic manifestations have not been investigated.

Prognostic feature based on androgen-responsive genes in bladder cancer and screening for potential targeted drugs.

Objectives: Bladder cancer (BLCA) is a tumor that affects men more than women. The biological function and prognostic value of androgen-responsive genes (ARGs) in BLCA are currently unknown. To address this, we established an androgen signature to determine the prognosis of BLCA.

Five Year Outcomes in Low-Risk Patients Undergoing Surgery in the PARTNER 3 Trial.

Background: Surgery remains an important treatment for low-risk patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS). We evaluated 5-year outcomes in low-risk patients undergoing isolated surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or SAVR with concomitant procedures within the randomized PARTNER 3 trial.

Methods: In the PARTNER 3 trial, 454 patients underwent surgery for severe, symptomatic, tri-leaflet AS and were followed for 5 years.

Potassium Nitrate in Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Nitric oxide deficiency may contribute to exercise intolerance in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Prior pilot studies have shown improvements in exercise tolerance with single-dose and short-term inorganic nitrate administration.

Objective: To assess the impact of chronic inorganic nitrate administration on exercise tolerance in a larger trial of participants with HFpEF.

2024 Update of the RECOVER-Adult Long COVID Research Index.

Importance: Classification of persons with long COVID (LC) or post-COVID-19 condition must encompass the complexity and heterogeneity of the condition. Iterative refinement of the classification index for research is needed to incorporate newly available data as the field rapidly evolves.

Objective: To update the 2023 research index for adults with LC using additional participant data from the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER-Adult) study and an expanded symptom list based on input from patient communities.

American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy guideline on the diagnosis and management of GERD: summary and recommendations.

This clinical practice guideline from the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) provides an evidence-based approach for strategies to diagnose and manage GERD. This document was developed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation framework and serves as an update to the 2014 ASGE guideline on the role of endoscopy in the management of GERD. This updated guideline addresses the indications for endoscopy in patients with GERD as well as in the emerging population of patients who develop GERD after sleeve gastrectomy or peroral endoscopic myotomy.

Social Media Savvy, It's More Than Just the #Hashtags: How the Use of Social Media in Transplant Infectious Diseases Can Impact the Field and Patients.

Social media provides platforms for transplant infectious diseases (TIDs) clinicians to network, exchange ideas, and educate each other and the broader public. A #TxIDChat on the social media platform X was conducted on the perceptions of social media in TID by the account @TxID_Fellows. This article examines the current usage of social media by TID clinicians, and its role in education, patient outreach, and networking.

Survival Differences in Asian and Hispanic Patients With In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

Background: Although they are fast-growing populations in the United States, little is known about survival outcomes of Hispanic and Asian patients after in-hospital cardiac arrest.

Methods And Results: In Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation, we identified Asian, Hispanic, and White adults with in-hospital cardiac arrest during 2005 to 2023. Using multivariable models, we compared rates of survival to discharge separately for Asian and Hispanic patients versus White patients, as well as rates of sustained return of spontaneous circulation for ≥20 minutes and favorable neurologic survival as secondary outcomes.

Etiologies of Bloody Diarrhea in Children Presenting With Acute Gastroenteritis to US Emergency Departments.

We used molecular testing to examine the causes of bloody diarrhea in a multicenter study of pediatric gastroenteritis. Pathogens typically associated with bloody diarrhea were detected in less than half of cases, and inappropriate antibiotic use was common, supporting the use of stool testing in patients with bloody diarrhea.

A Case Report of Grisel's Syndrome Complicating the Postoperative Course of Craniotomy for a Massive Cystic Brain Lesion.

This report presents the case of a seven-year-old child diagnosed with Grisel's syndrome following a craniotomy for a cystic brain lesion. The patient initially presented with persistent, progressively worsening headaches that coincided with neurological symptoms. Imaging revealed a massive cystic lesion causing a significant compression and midline shift.

Expanding the landscape of antibody discovery.

Library:library screening technologies hold substantial promise for paired antibody:antigen discovery, but challenges have persisted. In this issue of Cell Reports Methods, Wagner et al. introduce a method that combines antibody-ribosome-mRNA complexes, antigen cell surface display, and single-cell RNA sequencing to successfully screen diverse antibody gene libraries against a library of viral receptor proteins.

Implementing Cancer Registry Data With the PCORnet Common Data Model: The Greater Plains Collaborative Experience.

Purpose: Electronic health records (EHRs) comprise a rich source of real-world data for cancer studies, but they often lack critical structured data elements such as diagnosis date and disease stage. Fortunately, such concepts are available from hospital cancer registries. We describe experiences from integrating cancer registry data with EHR and billing data in an interoperable data model across a multisite clinical research network.

Relationship Between Severity of Ischemia and Coronary Artery Disease for Different Stress Test Modalities in the ISCHEMIA Trial.

Background: The relationship between the extent and severity of stress-induced ischemia and the extent and severity of anatomic coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with obstructive CAD is multifactorial and includes the intensity of stress achieved, type of testing used, presence and extent of prior infarction, collateral blood flow, plaque characteristics, microvascular disease, coronary vasomotor tone, and genetic factors. Among chronic coronary disease participants with site-determined moderate or severe ischemia, we investigated associations between ischemia severity on stress testing and the extent of CAD on coronary computed tomography angiography.

Methods: Clinically indicated stress testing included nuclear imaging, echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, or nonimaging exercise tolerance test.

Antiviral Use Among Children Hospitalized With Laboratory-Confirmed Influenza Illness: A Prospective, Multicenter Surveillance Study.

Background: Guidelines state that all hospitalized children with suspected or confirmed influenza receive prompt treatment with influenza-specific antivirals. We sought to determine the frequency of, and factors associated with, antiviral receipt among hospitalized children.

Methods: We conducted active surveillance of children presenting with fever or respiratory symptoms from 1 December 2016 to 31 March 2020 at 7 pediatric medical centers in the New Vaccine Surveillance Network.

Proteomic profiling of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid uncovers protein clusters linked to survival in idiopathic forms of interstitial lung disease.

Background: Idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIPs), such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features, present diagnostic and therapeutic challenges due to their heterogeneous nature. This study aimed to identify intrinsic molecular signatures within the lung microenvironment of these IIPs through proteomic analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF).

Methods: Patients with IIP (n=23) underwent comprehensive clinical evaluation including pre-treatment bronchoscopy and were compared with controls without lung disease (n=5).

Multielectrode Radiofrequency Balloon Catheter for Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation: Results From the Global, Multicenter, STELLAR Study.

Introduction: The safety and efficacy of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) ablation with the HELIOSTAR multielectrode radiofrequency (RF) balloon catheter have been demonstrated in European studies; data from elsewhere are lacking. This prospective, multicenter study conducted in the United States, Italy, and China investigated the safety and efficacy of pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) using HELIOSTAR in drug-refractory symptomatic PAF.

Methods: The primary effectiveness endpoint (PEE) was 12-month freedom from documented atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter/atrial tachycardia plus freedom from acute procedural failure, nonstudy catheter failure, repeat ablation failure, direct current cardioversion (DCCV), and Class I/III antiarrhythmic drug (AAD) failure.

Smartphone Technology for Applications in Image-Guided Minimally Invasive Interventional Procedures.

Smartphones contain powerful and enabling technology components that can be re-applied toward procedural tasks commonly used in everyday clinical image-guided therapies and minimally invasive procedures that use three-dimensional information and feedback during procedures. Smartphone applications are a relatively young field of research that have potential in interventional radiology (IR) toward improvement of accuracy and standardization for needle-based procedures like biopsy and ablation. This review explores the adaptation of smartphones' built-in sensors for virtual and augmented reality uses in IR.

Temporal Trends in Mortality Related to Stroke and Atrial Fibrillation in the United States: A 21-Year Retrospective Analysis of CDC-WONDER Database.

Aims: Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is one of the most strongly associated risk factors for stroke. Our study aims to analyze changes in mortality from 1999 to 2020 in patients with AF and stroke.

Methods: Using the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC-WONDER), we retrospectively analyzed annual age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMR) per million from 1999 to 2020 in stroke patients with AF.

Polyfunctional IL-21 IFNG T follicular helper cells contribute to checkpoint inhibitor diabetes mellitus and can be targeted by JAK inhibitor therapy.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have revolutionized cancer therapy, but their use is limited by the development of autoimmunity in healthy tissues as a side effect of treatment. Such immune-related adverse events (IrAE) contribute to hospitalizations, cancer treatment interruption and even premature death. ICI-induced autoimmune diabetes mellitus (ICI-T1DM) is a life-threatening IrAE that presents with rapid pancreatic beta-islet cell destruction leading to hyperglycemia and life-long insulin dependence.

A robust benchmark for detecting low-frequency variants in the HG002 Genome In A Bottle NIST reference material.

Somatic mosaicism is an important cause of disease, but mosaic and somatic variants are often challenging to detect because they exist in only a fraction of cells. To address the need for benchmarking subclonal variants in normal cell populations, we developed a benchmark containing mosaic variants in the Genome in a Bottle Consortium (GIAB) HG002 reference material DNA from a large batch of a normal lymphoblastoid cell line. First, we used a somatic variant caller with high coverage (300x) Illumina whole genome sequencing data from the Ashkenazi Jewish trio to detect variants in HG002 not detected in at least 5% of cells from the combined parental data.