Efficacy of Tofacitinib in Takayasu Arteritis Refractory to Biologic DMARDs-A Multicentre Study in Indian Patients.

Background: The management of patients with Takayasu arteritis (TAK), especially those who are refractory to biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), is challenging.

Objective: We determined the efficacy of tofacitinib in patients with TAK who could not achieve or maintain stable disease despite biologic DMARDs (bDMARD-NR).

Methods: Details of consecutive patients with TAK treated with originator/generic tofacitinib at 5 centres in India were recorded retrospectively from the medical records.

Breaking Barriers in Stroke Therapy: Recent Advances and Ongoing Challenges.

Acute ischemic stroke remains a significant global health challenge, prompting notable advancements in its management. Diagnostic innovations, including advanced imaging techniques and biomarker discovery, have greatly improved early detection and treatment precision. Mobile stroke units have expedited pre-hospital care, emphasizing the urgency of intervention under the principle "time is brain.

Sinonasal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Mimicking a Brain Abscess: Report of a Unique Case.

Sinonasal cancers are rare tumors with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) being one of the more common histological subtypes. These carcinomas typically invade the sinus cavity from which they originate, progressively eroding surrounding bony structures and extending to adjacent anatomical regions. In rare instances, they may breach the posterior or superior walls to invade the anterior cranial fossa (ACF) and frontal lobes.

Clinical profiling, treatment characteristics and outcome in Behcet's Disease (BD)-A retrospective cohort study from Karnataka Rheumatology Association (KRA).

Background: Behcet's disease (BD) has a heterogeneous and unpredictable phenotype that differs in various geographical areas.

Objective: To describe the clinical phenotype & outcome of Behcet's disease(BD) from Karnataka, India and compare them with large cohorts from endemic regions.

Methods: Databases of practising rheumatologists from Karnataka were reviewed to retrieve clinical characteristics, course of illness, prescribing information and outcome at last follow-up of patients clinically diagnosed as BD.

Single-Molecule Maps of Membrane Insertion by Amyloid-β Oligomers Predict Their Toxicity.

The interaction of small Amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers with the lipid membrane is an important component of the pathomechanism of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, oligomers are heterogeneous in size. How each type of oligomer incorporates into the membrane, and how that relates to their toxicity, is unknown.

Do Tofacitinib Generics Exhibit Conventional Synthetic Disease-Modifying Anti-rheumatic Drug and Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug-Sparing Ability in the Management of Axial Spondyloarthritis?

Introduction: Tofacitinib has emerged as a therapeutic option for axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) following successful clinical trials. The evidence on the efficacy of tofacitinib generics in the management of axSpA is limited. In India, the usage of conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) is commonplace in the management of axSpA.

Deterministic early endosomal maturations emerge from a stochastic trigger-and-convert mechanism.

Endosomal maturation is critical for robust and timely cargo transport to specific cellular compartments. The most prominent model of early endosomal maturation involves a phosphoinositide-driven gain or loss of specific proteins on individual endosomes, emphasising an autonomous and stochastic description. However, limitations in fast, volumetric imaging long hindered direct whole cell-level measurements of absolute numbers of maturation events.

Occurrence and outcome of COVID-19 in AIRD patients on concomitant treatment with Tofacitinib- results from KRA COVID COHORT (KRACC) subset.

Introduction: We assessed the risk factors and outcome of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases(AIRD) who contracted infection while on background treatment with tofacitinib.

Methods: This is a non-interventional, cross-sectional, questionnaire based telephonic study which included consecutive AIRD patients on tofacitinib co-treatment. Data related to the AIRD subset, disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs(DMARDs) including glucocorticoids and comorbidities, was collected from 7 rheumatology centers across Karnataka during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

Post processing of low cost Aligners fabricated by additive manufacturing process to enhance the surface quality and functionality.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes have ample advantages compared to traditional manufacturing processes, including mass customization, material efficiency, bioprinting, and fabrication of complex geometries with reduced lead time. Despite such benefits, it suffers most from staircase effects that deteriorate the fabricated part's surface quality. Nowadays, additively manufactured aligners are suitable for treating malocclusion and temporomandibular defects of teeth.

Risk factors associated with COVID-19 in systemic lupus erythematosus: Results from a longitudinal prospective cohort.

Introduction: Patients with SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus) have a higher risk of infection due to dysregulated immune system as well as long-term use of immunosuppressants (IS). This could influence the risk of COVID-19 and its outcome.

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal prospective study across 15 rheumatology centres during the first wave of the pandemic to understand the risk factors contributing to COVID-19 in SLE patients.

Review of EEG-based neurofeedback as a therapeutic intervention to treat depression.

Depression, or major depressive disorder, is a common mental disorder that affects individuals' behavior, mood, and physical health, and its prevalence has increased during the lockdowns implemented to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an urgent need to update the treatment recommendations for mental disorders during such crises. Conventional interventions to treat depression include long-term pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Neurofeedback for the Education of Children with ADHD and Specific Learning Disorders: A Review.

Neurofeedback (NF) is a type of biofeedback in which an individual's brain activity is measured and presented to them to support self-regulation of ongoing brain oscillations and achieve specific behavioral and neurophysiological outcomes. NF training induces changes in neurophysiological circuits that are associated with behavioral changes. Recent evidence suggests that the NF technique can be used to train electrical brain activity and facilitate learning among children with learning disorders.

An Algorithm for Task Allocation and Planning for a Heterogeneous Multi-Robot System to Minimize the Last Task Completion Time.

This paper proposes an algorithm that provides operational strategies for multiple heterogeneous mobile robot systems utilized in many real-world applications, such as deliveries, surveillance, search and rescue, monitoring, and transportation. Specifically, the authors focus on developing an algorithm that solves a min-max multiple depot heterogeneous asymmetric traveling salesperson problem (MDHATSP). The algorithm is designed based on a primal-dual technique to operate given multiple heterogeneous robots located at distinctive depots by finding a tour for each robot such that all the given targets are visited by at least one robot while minimizing the last task completion time.

A prospective longitudinal study evaluating the influence of immunosuppressives and other factors on COVID-19 in autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Background: We conducted this study to identify the influence of prolonged use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), glucocorticoids and other immunosuppressants (IS) on occurrence and outcome of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases (AIRDs).

Methods: This was a prospective, multicenter, non-interventional longitudinal study across 15 specialist rheumatology centers. Consecutive AIRD patients on treatment with immunosuppressants were recruited and followed up longitudinally to assess parameters contributing to development of COVID-19 and its outcome.

Age-related and individual variations in altered prefrontal and cerebellar connectivity associated with the tendency of developing internet addiction.

Internet addiction refers to problematic patterns of internet use that continually alter the neural organization and brain networks that control impulsive behaviors and inhibitory functions. Individuals with elevated tendencies to develop internet addiction represent the transition between healthy and clinical conditions and may progress to behavioral addictive disorders. In this network neuroscience study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to examine how and whether individual variations in the tendency of developing internet addiction rewire functional connectivity and diminish the amplitude of spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations in healthy brains.

Healthy Aging Alters the Functional Connectivity of Creative Cognition in the Default Mode Network and Cerebellar Network.

Creativity is a higher-order neurocognitive process that produces unusual and unique thoughts. Behavioral and neuroimaging studies of younger adults have revealed that creative performance is the product of dynamic and spontaneous processes involving multiple cognitive functions and interactions between large-scale brain networks, including the default mode network (DMN), fronto-parietal executive control network (ECN), and salience network (SN). In this resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) study, group independent component analysis (group-ICA) and resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) measures were applied to examine whether and how various functional connected networks of the creative brain, particularly the default-executive and cerebro-cerebellar networks, are altered with advancing age.

Static and dynamic functional connectivity supports the configuration of brain networks associated with creative cognition.

Creative cognition is recognized to involve the integration of multiple spontaneous cognitive processes and is manifested as complex networks within and between the distributed brain regions. We propose that the processing of creative cognition involves the static and dynamic re-configuration of brain networks associated with complex cognitive processes. We applied the sliding-window approach followed by a community detection algorithm and novel measures of network flexibility on the blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal of 8 major functional brain networks to reveal static and dynamic alterations in the network reconfiguration during creative cognition using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Matched-Pair Analysis of Magnetic Resonance Images for Location of the Common Peroneal Nerve in Valgus Knees: Comparison with the Varus Knees.

This study aimed to assess the distance and angular location of the common peroneal nerve (CPN) on axial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the valgus knees and compare the measurements with those obtained from the control group. We compared the location of the CPN according to the type of alignment by performing a subgroup analysis. From January 2009 to December 2019, we identified 41 knees with preoperative MRI in patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) for valgus deformity (valgus group).

Screening for Hydroxychloroquine Retinal Toxicity in Indian Patients.

Objective: Several studies have reported hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) retinal toxicity in East Asian patients. However, at present, there are limited data from Indian patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and pattern of HCQ retinal toxicity in Indian population and to see if screening protocol for retinal toxicity in Indian patients should be any different to others.

Anti-drug antibodies and low serum trough infliximab levels correlate with disease activity measures in spondyloarthritis patients on an as-needed infliximab treatment.

Aim: In India, many centers use infliximab at lower doses of 3-5 mg/kg without the loading dose for spondyloarthritis (SpA) patients. It is then continued on an as-required basis, rather than a fixed schedule. Our study was undertaken to see if the trough drug levels and anti-drug antibodies in patients with SpA treated with as-needed infliximab dosing correlated with the disease activity measures.

KinVis: a visualization tool to detect cryptic relatedness in genetic datasets.

Motivation: It is important to characterize individual relatedness in terms of familial relationships and underlying population structure in genome-wide association studies for correct downstream analysis. The characterization of individual relatedness becomes vital if the cohort is to be used as reference panel in other studies for association tests and for identifying ethnic diversities. In this paper, we propose a kinship visualization tool to detect cryptic relatedness between subjects.