Statistical Analysis and Reporting of Cardiac Output Method Comparison Studies (COMPARE) Statement.

Cardiac output is a key cardiovascular variable quantifying global blood flow. The measurement performance of cardiac output monitoring methods is investigated in validation studies, which are method comparison studies determining the agreement between cardiac output values measured with a test method and those measured with a reference method. The StatistiCal analysis and repOrting of cardiac output Method comPARison studiEs (COMPARE) statement provides a framework for designing, performing, and reporting cardiac output method comparison studies and includes a checklist of 29 items that are essential for reporting of those studies.

Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Anxiety subscale (HADS-A) for detecting anxiety disorders in adults.

Background: Despite being highly prevalent mental health conditions, anxiety disorders frequently go undiagnosed, prompting the use of questionnaires for anxiety screening as a potential solution. This review summarises the test accuracy of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Anxiety subscale (HADS-A) for screening purposes.

Objectives: To assess the test accuracy of the HADS-A in screening for any anxiety disorder (AAD), generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder in adults, and to investigate how the test accuracy varies by sources of heterogeneity and across all cutoffs.

Continuous noninvasive blood pressure monitoring with wearable photoplethysmography: A method comparison study in high-risk patients recovering from noncardiac surgery.

Background: The Biobeat wrist monitor (BB-613W; Biobeat Technologies, Petah-Tikva, Israel) and the Biobeat chest monitor (BB-613P; Biobeat Technologies) are wearable solutions for continuous noninvasive blood pressure monitoring.

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the blood pressure measurement performance of the Biobeat wrist monitor and chest monitor after external calibration.

Design: A prospective method comparison study.

Is the association between visit- to- visit heart rate variability and cardiovascular disease mediated by arteriopathy as measured by carotid intima- media thickness?

Background: Visit-to-visit heart rate variation (HRV-VV) is associated with mortality and cardiovascular events. Mechanisms of the interaction between HRV-VV and vascular disease are not clearly understood. Our study aimed to evaluate the association between HRV-VV and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and their potential impact on cardiovascular disease development.

The implications of somatic symptom disorder on the impairment of daily life are greater in post-COVID syndrome than in asthma or COPD - results of a cross-sectional study in a rehabilitation clinic.

The aim was to compare the relationship between somatic symptom disorder (SSD), anxiety, depression, clinical symptoms, and daily life impairment (DLI) in post-COVID syndrome (PCS), asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In a cross-sectional study, 371 patients (161 PCS, 121 asthma, 89 COPD) of a pulmonary rehabilitation clinic received the questionnaires PHQ-15 (Patient Health Questionnaire-15) and SSD-12 (Somatic Symptom Disorder-12) to determine SSD, GAD-7 (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7) to determine anxiety disorder, and PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) to determine depression. Lung function was estimated using whole-body plethysmography.

Insights Into Disability and Disability Progression in People With Multiple Sclerosis Using Large-Scale Healthcare Data.

Background: Identifying predictors for disability progression is crucial for managing multiple sclerosis (MS). This study aims to explore levels of disability and informative factors for disability progression in people with MS (PwMS) using healthcare data without detailed clinical information.

Methods: We conducted a case-control/cohort study on data from Bavaria's largest health insurance organization.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) and 2-item (GAD-2) scales for detecting anxiety disorders in adults.

Background: Anxiety disorders often remain undetected and can cause substantial burden. Amongst the many anxiety screening tools, the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale and its short version, the 2-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-2) scale, are the most frequently used instruments.

Objectives: Primary: to determine the diagnostic accuracy of GAD-7 and GAD-2 to detect generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and any anxiety disorder (AAD) in adults.

Effectiveness of an online asthma education program in adults with asthma in general practice: Results from a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Background: Asthma education programs (AEPs) are crucial to improving patient outcomes, but few patients participate. Therefore, an online asthma education program (electronic AEP, eAEP) has been developed. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the eAEP in adults with asthma in terms of asthma knowledge, symptom control and emergency treatments.

Antibiotic drug use in the five years preceding the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Background: Microbiota may play a role in autoimmune disease pathogenesis, including multiple sclerosis (MS). Antibiotic use disrupts the microbiome and may increase the risk of autoimmune diseases. We evaluated the relationship between MS diagnosis and antibiotic, antimycotic and antiviral drug use in the 5 years preceding diagnosis.

Early comorbidities and diagnostic challenges in people with multiple sclerosis with possible impact on disease management.

Background: Comorbidities in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) can affect disease course and quality of life.

Objectives: To investigate comorbidities in the five years after diagnosis, timing of comorbidity occurrence, age and sex effects, and differences between multiple sclerosis (MS) and other chronic autoimmune diseases (AIDs).

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we systematically assessed differences in diagnosis frequencies in newly diagnosed PwMS ( = 9,880) compared to matched controls (noAID,  = 29,640) and individuals with other AIDs (psoriasis,  = 29,640; Crohn's disease,  = 9,880).

Assisted Parkinsonism Diagnosis Using Multimodal MRI-The Role of Clinical Insights.

Background: While automated methods for differential diagnosis of parkinsonian syndromes based on MRI imaging have been introduced, their implementation in clinical practice still underlies considerable challenges.

Objective: To assess whether the performance of classifiers based on imaging derived biomarkers is improved with the addition of basic clinical information and to provide a practical solution to address the insecurity of classification results due to the uncertain clinical diagnosis they are based on.

Methods: Retro- and prospectively collected data from multimodal MRI and standardized clinical datasets of 229 patients with PD (n = 167), PSP (n = 44), or MSA (n = 18) underwent multinomial classification in a benchmark study comparing the performance of nine machine learning methods.

Deceleration capacity derived from a five-minute electrocardiogram predicts mortality in the general population.

In contemporary healthcare, effective risk stratification in the general population is vital amidst rising chronic disease rates and an ageing demographic. Deceleration Capacity of the heart rate (DC), derived from 24-hour Holter electrocardiograms, holds promise in risk stratification for cardiac patients. However, the potential of short-term electrocardiograms of five minutes duration for population screening has not been fully explored.

Electrical cardiometry for non-invasive cardiac output monitoring: a method comparison study in patients after coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Cardiac output can be estimated non-invasively by electrical cardiometry with the ICON® monitor (Osypka Medical GmbH, Berlin, Germany). Conflicting results have been reported regarding the cardiac output measurement performance of electrical cardiometry. In this prospective method comparison study, we compared cardiac output measured using electrical cardiometry (EC-CO; test method) with cardiac output measured using intermittent pulmonary artery thermodilution (PATD-CO; reference method) in patients after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.

Vaccination as a risk factor for pediatric multiple sclerosis: Insights from a retrospective case-control study.

This study evaluated the association between pediatric multiple sclerosis and vaccinations within 5 years before diagnosis using German ambulatory claims data. Children with multiple sclerosis ( = 346) aged 9-17 were analyzed with logistic and Poisson regression. Control groups included children with Crohn's disease, psoriasis, and no autoimmune diseases.

Clinical outcome after endovascular stroke Thrombectomy: Association with pre-reperfusion blood pressure.

Study Objective: Blood pressure drops during endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke have been associated with worse outcomes for stroke patients. We aimed to evaluate this observation in our patient population.

Design: Retrospective study.

Frequency, persistence and relation of disease symptoms, psychosomatic comorbidity and daily life impairment after COVID-19: a cohort study in general practice.

Background: Long-lasting symptoms with a possible relation to psychosomatic comorbidity have been described following COVID-19. However, data is sparse in general practice. The trial's objective was to investigate the time-dependent frequency of disease symptoms and relation to psychosomatic comorbidity and daily life impairment (DLI).

Development and psychometric evaluation of a questionnaire for the assessment of depression in primary care: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To develop a new questionnaire for the diagnostic assessment of depression adapted to the primary care setting by combining psychiatric criteria and heuristics of general practitioners (GPs). Psychometric evaluation of the new questionnaire and first validity evidence.

Design: The questionnaire was developed using cognitive interviews with think-aloud technique.

Incidence and pattern of urgent revascularization in acute coronary syndromes treated with ticagrelor or prasugrel.

Background: The ISAR-REACT 5 trial compared the efficacy and safety of ticagrelor and prasugrel in patients with ACS managed invasively. The present study sought to investigate the impact of ticagrelor and prasugrel on the incidence and pattern of urgent revascularization in acute coronary syndromes (ACS) patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Methods And Results: This post-hoc analysis of the ISAR-REACT 5 trial included all ACS patients who underwent PCI.

Long-term prospective outcome data using EndoPredict as risk stratification and chemotherapy decision biomarker in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer.

Purpose: To report the prospective long-term outcome data of patients whose chemotherapy decision was guided by the EndoPredict test.

Methods: Patients with hormone receptor-positive HER2-negative early breast cancer with 0-3 positive lymph nodes were enrolled. The EndoPredict test was carried out on all tumor samples.

Dipsticks and point-of-care Microscopy to reduce antibiotic use in women with an uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infection (MicUTI): protocol of a randomised controlled pilot trial in primary care.

Introduction: Uncomplicated urinary tract infections (uUTIs) in women are common infections encountered in primary care. Evidence suggests that rapid point-of-care tests (POCTs) to detect bacteria and erythrocytes in urine at presentation may help primary care clinicians to identify women with uUTIs in whom antibiotics can be withheld without influencing clinical outcomes. This pilot study aims to provide preliminary evidence on whether a POCT informed management of uUTI in women can safely reduce antibiotic use.

Greedy knot selection algorithm for restricted cubic spline regression.

Non-linear regression modeling is common in epidemiology for prediction purposes or estimating relationships between predictor and response variables. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression is one such method, for example, highly relevant to Cox proportional hazard regression model analysis. RCS regression uses third-order polynomials joined at knot points to model non-linear relationships.

Protocol for a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind phase IIa study of the safety, tolerability, and symptomatic efficacy of the ROCK-inhibitor Fasudil in patients with Parkinson's disease (ROCK-PD).

Background: The Rho-kinase (ROCK) inhibitor Fasudil has shown symptomatic and disease-modifying effects in Parkinson's disease (PD) models and . In Japan, Fasudil has been approved for the treatment of subarachnoid haemorrhage since 1995 and shows a favourable safety profile.

Objectives/design: To investigate the safety, tolerability, and symptomatic efficacy of ROCK-inhibitor Fasudil in comparison to placebo in a randomized, national, multicenter, double-blind phase IIa study in patients with PD.