Risk Factors for Serrated Polyps: Results From a Large, Multicenter Colonoscopy-Based Study.

Introduction: Risk factors for serrated polyps (SPs) are not well understood.

Methods: Multivariable analyses of data from a multicenter colonoscopy-based study estimated odds ratios for having either a sessile serrated lesion or traditional serrated adenoma according to participant characteristics.

Results: Six thousand seventy-eighty participants were included in the analyses (565 with either a sessile serrated lesion or traditional serrated adenoma).

Comparative Performance of Common Fecal Immunochemical Tests : A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Despite widespread use of fecal immunochemical tests (FITs) for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, data to guide test selection are limited.

Objective: To compare the performance characteristics of 5 commonly used FITs, using colonoscopy as the reference standard.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Successful Hepatitis C Birth Cohort Screening and Linkage to Care in a US Community Health System.

Context: Birth cohort ("baby boomer") screening represents a well-validated strategy for the identification of asymptomatic hepatitis C-infected patients. However, successful linkage of newly diagnosed patients to antiviral therapy has been more difficult to accomplish.

Objective: To analyze the results of a systemwide birth cohort screening program in a US community health care system.

Sustained and cumulative impact of an electronic medical record-based alert on a hepatitis C birth cohort screening programme.

The study aimed to assess the effect of an electronic medical record-embedded best practice alert (BPA) on HCV age cohort screening in primary care clinics. HCV testing by primary care physicians was monitored prior and subsequent to the implantation of the BPA. Four intervals of 9 months duration were analysed in detail, including a pre-BPA baseline analysis and three annual post-BPA assessments.

Metabolic Acidosis in CKD: A Review of Recent Findings.

Metabolic acidosis is fairly common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The prevalence of metabolic acidosis increases with worsening kidney function and is observed in ∼40% of those with stage 4 CKD. For the past 2 decades, clinical practice guidelines have suggested treatment of metabolic acidosis to counterbalance adverse effects of metabolic acidosis on bone and muscle.

Switching patients in the age of long-acting recombinant products?

: Prophylaxis with factor replacement therapy is the gold standard for the treatment of hemophilia, but this often requires frequent infusions. A number of long-acting factor products have been developed to reduce the burden on patients. : This is an overview of information presented at two symposia held at the World Federation of Hemophilia and International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis - Scientific and Standardization Committee annual meetings.

Altered vertebral and femoral bone structure in juvenile offspring of microswine subject to maternal low protein nutritional challenge.

Epidemiological studies suggest skeletal growth is programmed during intrauterine and early postnatal life. We hypothesize that bone development may be altered by maternal diet and have investigated this using a microswine model of maternal protein restriction (MPR). Mothers were fed a control diet (14% protein) or isocaloric low (1%) protein diet during late pregnancy and for 2 weeks postnatally.

Long-Term Benefit of Golimumab for Patients with Moderately to Severely Active Ulcerative Colitis: Results from the PURSUIT-Maintenance Extension.

Background And Aims: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of 3 additional years of subcutaneous golimumab maintenance in patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis.

Methods: The PURSUIT-maintenance long-term extension enrolled patients who had completed placebo or golimumab 50 mg or 100 mg treatment every 4 weeks [q4w] through Week 52 and evaluations at Week 54 [n = 666]; treatment continued through Week 212. Patients receiving placebo were discontinued after study unblinding.

Augmented frontal cortex diacylglycerol levels in Parkinson's disease and Lewy Body Disease.

Background: Research from our laboratory, and that of other investigators, has demonstrated augmented levels of diacylglycerols (DAG) in the frontal cortex and plasma of subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). We have extended these observations to investigate the frontal cortex of subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD) and Lewy Body Disease (LBD), with and without coexisting pathologic features of AD.

Methods/principal Findings: Utilizing a high-resolution mass spectrometry analytical platform, we clearly demonstrate that DAG levels are significantly increased in the frontal cortex of subjects with PD, LBD with intermediate neocortical AD neuropathology, and in LBD with established neocortical AD neuropathology.

CSF Lipidomics Analysis: High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry Analytical Platform.

High-resolution mass spectrometry provides the resolution required for direct infusion allowing detection and characterization of a vast array of lipids with a single injection. This chapter presents the methodology utilized for both unbiased and targeted lipidomics of cerebrospinal fluid.

Analysis of Margin Classification Systems for Assessing the Risk of Local Recurrence After Soft Tissue Sarcoma Resection.

Purpose To compare the ability of margin classification systems to determine local recurrence (LR) risk after soft tissue sarcoma (STS) resection. Methods Two thousand two hundred seventeen patients with nonmetastatic extremity and truncal STS treated with surgical resection and multidisciplinary consideration of perioperative radiotherapy were retrospectively reviewed. Margins were coded by residual tumor (R) classification (in which microscopic tumor at inked margin defines R1), the R+1mm classification (in which microscopic tumor within 1 mm of ink defines R1), and the Toronto Margin Context Classification (TMCC; in which positive margins are separated into planned close but positive at critical structures, positive after whoops re-excision, and inadvertent positive margins).

Prediction of Conversion to Alzheimer's Disease with Longitudinal Measures and Time-To-Event Data.

Background: Identifying predictors of conversion to Alzheimer's disease (AD) is critically important for AD prevention and targeted treatment.

Objective: To compare various clinical and biomarker trajectories for tracking progression and predicting conversion from amnestic mild cognitive impairment to probable AD.

Methods: Participants were from the ADNI-1 study.

The effect of APOE genotype on the delivery of DHA to cerebrospinal fluid in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ɛ4 and low cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid-β42 (Aβ42) levels are predictors for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). The results of several studies indicate an interaction between docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) consumption and cognitive outcomes by APOE genotype. Our objective in the present study was to examine whether APOE ɛ4 genotype and low CSF Aβ42 levels were associated with reduced delivery of DHA to CSF in the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study-sponsored DHA clinical trial.

Responsiveness of the Balance Evaluation Systems Test (BESTest) in People With Subacute Stroke.

Background: The reliability and convergent validity of the Balance Evaluation Systems Test (BESTest) in people with subacute stroke have been established, but its responsiveness to rehabilitation has not been examined.

Objective: The study objective was to compare the responsiveness of the BESTest with those of other clinical balance tools in people with subacute stroke.

Design: This was a prospective cohort study.

Targeted Lipidomics of Fontal Cortex and Plasma Diacylglycerols (DAG) in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: Validation of DAG Accumulation Early in the Pathophysiology of Alzheimer's Disease.

Previous studies have demonstrated augmented levels of diacylglycerols (DAG) in the frontal cortex and plasma of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. We extended these findings from non-targeted lipidomics studies to design a lipidomics platform to interrogate DAGs and monoacylglycerols (MAG) in the frontal cortex and plasma of MCI subjects. Control subjects included both aged normal controls and controls with normal cognition, but AD pathology at autopsy, individuals termed non-demented AD neuropathology.

Increased CSF E-Selectin in Clinical Alzheimer's Disease without Altered CSF Aβ42 and Tau.

Clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease (AD) is pathologically heterogeneous. In this multicenter cohort of 215 clinically diagnosed AD patients and 249 controls, E-selectin and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VACM-1) were measured along with amyloid-β peptide 1-42 (Aβ42) and tau. We discovered that E-selectin, a biomarker of endothelial function/vascular injury, was inversely correlated with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tau/Aβ42 ratio and significantly elevated in clinical AD patients without the typical AD CSF biomarker signature (i.

Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase in Hydrocephalus, Cerebral Edema, and Vascular Inflammation After Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.

Background And Purpose: Acute communicating hydrocephalus and cerebral edema are common and serious complications of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), whose causes are poorly understood. Using a mouse model of SAH, we determined whether soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) gene deletion protects against SAH-induced hydrocephalus and edema by increasing levels of vasoprotective eicosanoids and suppressing vascular inflammation.

Methods: SAH was induced via endovascular puncture in wild-type and sEH knockout mice.

Patient perspectives on physician conflict of interest in industry-sponsored clinical trials for multiple sclerosis therapeutics.

Background: Pharmaceutical industry financial support of physicians, physician practices, and academic departments involved in multicenter industry-sponsored clinical trials of novel therapeutic agents is a relatively new and infrequently acknowledged source of potential physician conflict of interest. Detailed disclosure of these relationships to study participants is not uniformly a part of informed consent and documentation practices.

Objective: To understand attitudes of patients with multiple sclerosis concerning disclosure of potential physician-industry conflicts of interest created by clinical trials and how such disclosures may influence study participation

Methods: An anonymous online instrument was developed.

Whom to Target for Falls-Prevention Trials: Recommendations from the International MS Falls Prevention Research Network.

Effective falls-prevention approaches for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) are needed. A significant challenge in studying falls-prevention programs for people with MS is deciding whom to include in trials. This article presents and discusses potential criteria for selecting participants for trials of falls-prevention interventions in MS.

CD4 aptamer-RORγt shRNA chimera inhibits IL-17 synthesis by human CD4(+) T cells.

Cell type specific delivery of RNAi to T cells has remained to be a challenge. Here we describe an aptamer mediated delivery of shRNA to CD4(+) T cells targeting RORγt to suppress Th17 cells. A cDNA encoding CD4 aptamer and RORγt shRNA was constructed and the chimeric CD4 aptamer-RORγt shRNA (CD4-AshR-RORγt) was generated using in vitro T7 RNA transcription.