Circulating CD19 B cell count, myocardial injury and clinical outcomes in patients with heart failure.

Aims: Heart failure (HF) is a steadily increasing health problem associated with a high mortality rate. Lymphocytopenia is common and reportedly associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with HF. Alterations in circulating lymphocyte subsets have not been examined.

Evaluating the accuracy of preoperative endoscopic localization for colorectal cancer: post hoc analysis of a prospective study.

Background: Preoperative localization of colorectal cancer (CRC) is essential for accurate resection and treatment planning. However, colonoscopy-based tumor localization may lack optimal accuracy, potentially affecting surgical outcomes and patient management. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of colonoscopic localization of CRC and identify predictors of preoperative endoscopic localization errors.

Optimal number of needle passes in EUS-guided tissue sampling for genomic profiling: a randomized, noncomparative trial.

Background And Aims: The use of commercially available comprehensive genomic profiling tests, such as the FoundationOne CDx (F1CDx), has increased. However, the success rate of F1CDx using samples obtained by EUS-guided tissue acquisition (EUS-TA) is suboptimal. This study aimed to verify the optimal method for obtaining samples suitable for F1CDx among 3 EUS-TA techniques.

Artificial intelligence in imaging diagnosis of liver tumors: current status and future prospects.

Liver cancer remains a significant global health concern, ranking as the sixth most common malignancy and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Medical imaging plays a vital role in managing liver tumors, particularly hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and metastatic lesions. However, the large volume and complexity of imaging data can make accurate and efficient interpretation challenging.

H&E Style Translation Using CycleGAN for Deep Ultraviolet-Excitation Fluorescence Images of Pancreatic Endoscopic Ultrasound-Fine Needle Aspiration/Biopsy Toward Slide-Free Rapid Pathology.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration/biopsy (EUS-FNA/B) is critical for determining treatment strategies for patients with pancreatic cancer. However, conventional pathological examination using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining is time-consuming. Microscopy with ultraviolet surface excitation (MUSE) enables rapid pathological diagnosis without requiring slide preparation.

Comparison of survival and recurrence between colonic and rectal tumors after resection in T1 colorectal cancer: long-term cohort study.

Background And Aims: Lesion location's impact on recurrence after T1 colorectal cancer (CRC) resection remains unclear. This study evaluated survival and recurrence differences between colonic and rectal tumors after T1 CRC resection.

Methods: Patients who underwent T1 CRC resection were reviewed on the basis of pathologic risk factors for lymph node metastases according to the Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum guidelines.

Transanal endoscopic cooperative surgery as a less invasive resection technique for anorectal tumors extending beyond the dentate line: Case series.

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and surgical local excision pose particular challenges for anorectal tumors extending beyond the dentate line, making technique selection difficult. We hypothesized that combining ESD and local excision (transanal endoscopy cooperative surgery; TaECS) can effectively resect such tumors. TaECS was performed for three patients with anorectal tumors extending beyond the dentate line between January and December 2022.

Effect of Serum Carboxyl-Terminal Telopeptide of Type I Collagen on Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease.

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major cause of mortality worldwide. Serum carboxyl-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CITP), a marker of collagen degradation in the heart and blood vessels, is associated with plaque vulnerability and cardiac remodeling in patients with acute myocardial infarction. However, the effect of CITP on the clinical outcomes of patients with CAD has not yet been elucidated.

Benefits of macroscopic on-site evaluation in endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition for comprehensive genomic profiling.

Background And Study Aims: Matched therapy based on comprehensive genomic profiling is a potential treatment option for patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer; however, the optimal method for obtaining tissue samples suitable for comprehensive genomic profiling using endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the optimal endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition method to obtain samples for comprehensive genomic profiling.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective study included 86 consecutive patients with pancreatic cancer who underwent comprehensive genomic profiling using FoundationOne CDx (Foundation Medicine Inc.

Feasibility of endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder drainage for acute gangrenous cholecystitis in poor surgical candidates.

Objectives: Surgery is generally the first choice of treatment for gangrenous cholecystitis (GC). However, some patients are not fit for surgery because of their comorbidities. We evaluated the feasibility of endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder drainage (ETGBD) for GC in poor surgical candidates.

Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease in a patient with retinitis pigmentosa in one eye and pigmented paravenous retinochoroidal atrophy in the other eye.

Purpose: To report a case of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease in a patient with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) in the right eye and pigmented paravenous retinochoroidal atrophy (PPRCA) in the left eye.

Observations: A 32-year-old woman with a history of RP visited our hospital with blurred vision in the left eye. She had a headache for four days before the onset of vision loss.

Evaluating the Need for Additional Surgery After Non-Curative Endoscopic Resection in Patients with Remnant Gastric Cancer.

Purpose: Completion total gastrectomy is considered an additional treatment after non-curative endoscopic resection for remnant gastric cancer. However, its high invasiveness remains a concern. This study aimed to assess the necessity of additional surgery after non-curative endoscopic submucosal dissection in patients with remnant gastric cancer.

Feasibility of a novel 5F plastic stent in endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder drainage for acute cholecystitis.

Background And Study Aims: Many reports have demonstrated the efficacy of endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder stenting (EGBS) for acute cholecystitis (AC), most of which have traditionally used a 7F plastic stent. The study aim was to evaluate the efficacy of a novel 5F plastic stent in EGBS for AC.

Patients And Methods: We designed a retrospective study that compared the outcomes between 7F and 5F stents in patients undergoing EGBS.

Assessment of safety and patency of 7-mm covered metal stents for preoperative biliary drainage in pancreatic cancer: Prospective multicenter study.

Background And Study Aims: For preoperative biliary drainage of pancreatic cancer (PC), a 10-mm diameter metal stent (MS) is commonly used; however, the rate of pancreatitis is high. It is hypothesized that smaller-diameter MS may reduce the rate of pancreatitis. Therefore, we conducted a multicenter prospective study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of 7-mm MS.

6-mm vs 10-mm diameter fully covered self-expandable metal stents in patients with unresectable malignant distal bile duct stricture (COSMIC UNISON): study protocol for a multicenter, randomized controlled trial.

Background: Unresectable malignant bile duct stricture (often caused by unresectable pancreatic cancer and cholangiocarcinoma) can be drained via insertion of self-expandable metal stents (SEMS) during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). Because recurrent biliary obstruction (RBO) and complications following stent insertion can delay chemotherapy and other treatments, a longer time to RBO (TRBO) is desirable. Although a longer TRBO has been reported among patients who undergo insertion with larger diameter SEMS, patients who undergo insertion with smaller diameter fully covered SEMS (FCSEMS) may have a lower incidence of complications than those with larger diameter FCSEMS.

Growth differentiation factor-15 and N-terminal pro-BNP in acute heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

Aims: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) continues to be an increasingly common health problem associated with a high mortality rate. Elevated levels of Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF15) and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) are reportedly associated with poor clinical outcomes in a broad range of cardiovascular diseases. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of the combined assessment of these markers on clinical outcomes in patients with HFpEF.

Automated Detection of Cancer-Suspicious Findings in Japanese Radiology Reports with Natural Language Processing: A Multicenter Study.

Missed critical imaging findings, particularly those indicating cancer, are a common issue that can result in delays in patient follow-up and treatment. To address this, we developed a rule-based natural language processing (NLP) algorithm to detect cancer-suspicious findings from Japanese radiology reports. The dataset used consisted of chest and abdomen CT reports from six institutions.

Incidence of Delirium during the Initiation Phase of Morphine and Hydromorphone Therapy in Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Comparative Study.

Background: Opioids are known to induce delirium, and the incidence of delirium induced by individual opioids has been investigated. However, only a limited number of studies have examined the incidence of delirium induced by oral hydromorphone.

Objective: To investigate whether differences exist in the incidence of delirium associated with oral morphine and oral hydromorphone during the initiation phase of treatment.

Comparison of active learning algorithms in classifying head computed tomography reports using bidirectional encoder representations from transformers.

Purpose: Systems equipped with natural language (NLP) processing can reduce missed radiological findings by physicians, but the annotation costs are burden in the development. This study aimed to compare the effects of active learning (AL) algorithms in NLP for estimating the significance of head computed tomography (CT) reports using bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT).

Methods: A total of 3728 head CT reports annotated with five categories of importance were used and UTH-BERT was adopted as the pre-trained BERT model.

Predicting recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection by assessing antimicrobial treatment based on days of antibiotic spectrum coverage and ATLAS scores.

Introduction: We aimed to determine the impact of prior antimicrobial treatment on recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) based on days of antibiotic spectrum coverage (DASC) and predict the risk of recurrence to guide the selection of appropriate initial therapeutic agents.

Methods: We assessed the antimicrobial treatment administered to 195 patients with a history of CDI for 28 days before testing positive for C. difficile using DASC and illness severity using ATLAS scores.

Diacylglycerol Kinase ζ Attenuates Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity Through p53 Degradation.

Background: Doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity is still an important medical problem associated with a high mortality rate in cancer survivors. p53 plays a key role in doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Diacylglycerol kinase ζ (Dgkζ), a 130-kDa enzyme abundant in cardiomyocytes, regulates the p53 protein expression level in neurons.

Artificial Intelligence Assessment of Chest Radiographs for COVID-19.

Background: The sensitivity of reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is limited for diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Chest computed tomography (CT) is reported to have high sensitivity; however, given the limited availability of chest CT during a pandemic, the assessment of more readily available imaging, such as chest radiographs, augmented by artificial intelligence may substitute for the detection of the features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia.

Methods: We trained a deep convolutional neural network to detect SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia using publicly available chest radiography imaging data including 8,851 normal, 6,045 pneumonia, and 200 COVID-19 pneumonia radiographs.