Endoglin, a Novel Biomarker and Therapeutical Target to Prevent Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor Growth and Metastasis.

Purpose: Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST) are highly aggressive soft-tissue sarcomas that lack effective treatments, underscoring the urgent need to uncover novel mediators of MPNST pathogenesis that may serve as potential therapeutic targets. Tumor angiogenesis is considered a critical event in MPNST transformation and progression. Here, we have investigated whether endoglin (ENG), a TGFβ coreceptor with a crucial role in angiogenesis, could be a novel therapeutic target in MPNSTs.

Initial clinical and treatment patterns of advanced differentiated thyroid cancer: ERUDIT study.

Background: Up to 30% of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) will develop advanced-stage disease (aDTC) with reduced overall survival (OS).

Objective: The aim of this study is to characterize initial diagnosis of aDTC, its therapeutic management, and prognosis in Spain and Portugal.

Methods: A multicentre, longitudinal, retrospective study of adult patients diagnosed with aDTC in the Iberian Peninsula was conducted between January 2007 and December 2012.

Intensive 90-day textile wearable Holter monitoring: an alternative to detect paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in selected patients with cryptogenic stroke.

We aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of 90-day cardiac monitoring with an external Holter device and to find a target population able to benefit from such a technique. Cryptogenic stroke patients were continuously monitored for 90 days with a textile wearable Holter (TWH). Compliance and quality of the monitoring were assessed by the number of hours of ECG stored per month.

Blood-Based Biomarkers to Search for Atrial Fibrillation in High-Risk Asymptomatic Individuals and Cryptogenic Stroke Patients.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) increases the risk of ischemic stroke in asymptomatic individuals and may be the underlying cause of many cryptogenic strokes. We aimed to test the usefulness of candidate blood-biomarkers related to AF pathophysiology in two prospective cohorts representative of those populations.

Methods: Two hundred seventy-four subjects aged 65-75 years with hypertension and diabetes from the AFRICAT cohort, and 218 cryptogenic stroke patients aged >55 years from the CRYPTO-AF cohort were analyzed.

Proteins and pathways in atrial fibrillation and atrial cardiomyopathy underlying cryptogenic stroke.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most prevalent causes of cryptogenic stroke. Also, apart from AF itself, structural and remodelling changes in the atria might be an underlying cause of cryptogenic stroke. We aimed to discover circulating proteins and reveal pathways altered in AF and atrial cardiomyopathy, measured by left atrial volume index (LAVI) and peak atrial longitudinal strain (PALS), in patients with cryptogenic stroke.

Performance of the 2017 European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology/American College of Rheumatology Classification Criteria for Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies in Patients With Myositis-Specific Autoantibodies.

Objective: We undertook this study to 1) determine the sensitivity of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR)/American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification criteria for idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) to properly classify myositis-specific autoantibody (MSA)-positive myositis patients, 2) describe the phenotype and muscle involvement over time in different MSA-positive patients, and 3) compare MSA subgroups to EULAR/ACR criteria-defined myositis subgroups for their capacity to predict clinical phenotypes in patients with IIMs.

Methods: The study included 524 MSA-positive myositis patients from the Johns Hopkins Myositis Center. Each patient was classified using the EULAR/ACR classification criteria.

Anti-Cortactin Autoantibodies Are Associated With Key Clinical Features in Adult Myositis But Are Rarely Present in Juvenile Myositis.

Objective: To define the prevalence and clinical phenotype of anti-cortactin autoantibodies in adult and juvenile myositis.

Methods: In this longitudinal cohort study, anti-cortactin autoantibody titers were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 670 adult myositis patients and 343 juvenile myositis patients as well as in 202 adult healthy controls and 90 juvenile healthy controls. The prevalence of anti-cortactin autoantibodies was compared among groups.

Predicting Atrial Fibrillation with High Risk of Embolization with Atrial Strain and NT-proBNP.

The aim of the study was to determine markers of atrial dysfunction in patients with cryptogenic stroke to predict episodes of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation with high risk of embolization (HpAF). We classified patients included in the Crypto-AF study, Cryptogenic Stroke registry, to detect paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (pAF) with wearable Holter, according to the longest episode of pAF in three groups: without pAF detection, episodes of pAF shorter than 5 h, and episodes of pAF longer than 5 h (HpAF). Atrial dysfunction surrogates were evaluated: EKG pattern, Holter record and echocardiography parameters (left atria volume (LAVI), and peak atrial longitudinal and contraction strain (PALS and PACS).

B-type natriuretic peptide over N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide to predict incident atrial fibrillation after cryptogenic stroke.

Background And Purpose: B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) are well-known surrogates of atrial fibrillation (AF) detection but studies usually present data on either BNP or NT-proBNP. The aim was to determine and directly compare the validity of the two biomarkers as a tool to predict AF and guide prolonged cardiac monitoring in cryptogenic stroke patients.

Methods: Non-lacunar acute ischaemic stroke (<72 h) patients over 55 years of age with cryptogenic stroke after standard evaluation were included in the Crypto-AF study and blood was collected.

Accumulation of autophagosome cargo protein p62 is common in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies.

Objectives: The subsarcolemmal accumulation of p62 aggregates in myofibres has been proposed to be characteristic of sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM). The objective of this study was to analyse the patterns and prevalence of p62 immunostaining and to quantitate p62 gene expression in muscle biopsies from a large number of patients with different types of myopathic and neurogenic disorders.

Methods: For the p62 immunostaining analysis, all patients with a muscle biopsy immunostained for p62 at the Johns Hopkins Neuromuscular Pathology Laboratory from 2013 to 2017 were included (n=303).

Large vessel occlusion is independently associated with atrial fibrillation detection.

Background And Purpose: Covert paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (pAF) is the most frequent cause of cardiac embolism. Our goal was to discover parameters associated with early pAF detection with intensive cardiac monitoring.

Method: Crypto-AF was a multicentre prospective study (four Comprehensive Stroke Centres) to detect pAF in non-lacunar cryptogenic stroke continuously monitored within the first 28 days.

Identification of Expression Profiles Defining Distinct Prognostic Subsets of Radioactive-Iodine Refractory Differentiated Thyroid Cancer from the DECISION Trial.

Several biomarkers have been suggested to have prognostic value in differentiated thyroid carcinomas (DTC) with no validation in the refractory setting, including all tumor subtypes. We aim to correlate RNA expression profiles with survival based on patients included in the DECISION trial. We obtained 247 samples from the 417 patients included in the DECISION study and performed RNAseq analysis (77 million paired-end reads for each sample on HiSeq2000).

Myositis Autoantigen Expression Correlates With Muscle Regeneration but Not Autoantibody Specificity.

Objective: Although more than a dozen myositis-specific autoantibodies (MSAs) have been identified, most patients with myositis are positive for a single MSA. The specific overexpression of a given myositis autoantigen in myositis muscle has been proposed as initiating and/or propagating autoimmunity against that particular autoantigen. The present study was undertaken to test this hypothesis.

APLP2, RRM2, and PRC1: New Putative Markers for the Differential Diagnosis of Thyroid Follicular Lesions.

Background: Current methods based on fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) are not sufficient to distinguish among follicular thyroid lesions, follicular adenoma (FA), follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC), and the follicular variant of papillary thyroid cancer (FVPTC). Furthermore, none of the immunohistochemical markers currently available are sensitive or specific enough to be used in the clinical setting, necessitating a diagnostic hemithyroidectomy. The aim of this study was to identify proteins of value for differential diagnosis between benign and malignant thyroid follicular lesions.

Simultaneous treatment with statins and aspirin reduces the risk of prostate cancer detection and tumorigenic properties in prostate cancer cell lines.

Nowadays prostate cancer is the most common solid tumor in men from industrialized countries and the second leading cause of death. At the ages when PCa is usually diagnosed, mortality related to cardiovascular morbidity is high; therefore, men at risk for PCa frequently receive chronic lipid-lowering and antiplatelet treatment. The aim of this study was to analyze how chronic treatment with statins, aspirin, and their combination influenced the risk of PCa detection.

Role of serum cholesterol and statin use in the risk of prostate cancer detection and tumor aggressiveness.

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between statin use along with serum cholesterol levels and prostate cancer (PCa) detection and aggressiveness. Statin users of three years or more and serum cholesterol levels (SC) were assessed in 2408 men scheduled for prostate biopsy. SC was classified as normal (NSC: <200 mg/dL) or high (HSC: >200 mg/dL).

Locally destructive mandibular pseudotumor as a manifestation of immunoglobulin G4-related disease.

Immunoglobulin G4-related disease is a recently identified entity. The cervicofacial location is not frequent. We report the case of a patient with an inflammatory pseudotumor in the mandible, who had to undergo surgery for diagnosis.

The present and future of prostate cancer urine biomarkers.

In order to successfully cure patients with prostate cancer (PCa), it is important to detect the disease at an early stage. The existing clinical biomarkers for PCa are not ideal, since they cannot specifically differentiate between those patients who should be treated immediately and those who should avoid over-treatment. Current screening techniques lack specificity, and a decisive diagnosis of PCa is based on prostate biopsy.

Macroorchidism and panhypopituitarism: two different forms of presentation of FSH-secreting pituitary adenomas in adolescence.

Background: FSH-secreting pituitary adenomas are extremely rare in children and are seldom associated with clinical manifestations of high serum gonadotrophin levels. Thus, most patients have a late presentation, usually as macroadenomas.

Case Reports: Two different clinical forms of presentation of FSH-secreting pituitary adenomas are reported: one in a 12-year-old boy with macroorchidism due to a pituitary microadenoma, probably FSH-secreting, and the other in a 15-year-old boy with panhypopituitarism due to an FSH-producing macroadenoma.