Cancer-specific mortality in secondary bladder cancer after nephroureterectomy for upper tract urothelial carcinoma.

Objective: To examine differences in cancer-specific mortality (CSM) in nonmetastatic upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) patients with vs. without secondary bladder cancer (BCa) after radical nephroureterectomy (RNU).

Methods: Within the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (SEER 2000-2021), T1-T4N0M0 UTUC patients treated with RNU and diagnosed with secondary BCa were identified.

[F]FDG-PET provides insights into the liver-brain axis and confirms SUV as a surrogate for MR in a mouse model of liver fibrosis.

Purpose: The liver-brain axis regulates metabolic homeostasis, with glucose metabolism playing a key role. Liver dysfunction, such as fibrosis, may impact brain metabolism and consequently, brain function. Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging provides a non-invasive approach to study glucose metabolism in both organs.

Prognostic factors for very early recurrence after neoadjuvant treatment and curative resection in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Introduction: Very early recurrence in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has been defined as recurrence ≤3 months after resection. Besides others, neoadjuvant treatment is delivered based on the assumption of preoperative eradication of micrometastasis as well as local downstaging. Prognostic factors of very early recurrence after neoadjuvant treatment remain largely unexplored.

Plectin affects cell viscoelasticity at small and large deformations.

Plectin is a giant protein of the plakin family that crosslinks the cytoskeleton of mammalian cells. It is expressed in virtually all tissues and its dysfunction is associated with various diseases such as skin blistering. There is evidence that plectin regulates the mechanical integrity of the cytoskeleton in diverse cell and tissue types.

Bone marrow mastocytosis associated with primary cutaneous follicle center lymphoma: an unusual case report.

In a subset of patients with systemic mastocytosis (SM), an associated hematologic neoplasm (AHN) is identified. Most AHN are myeloid neoplasms, whereas lymphoid neoplasms are uncommon. We report on a 70-year-old female patient with bone marrow mastocytosis (BMM) associated with primary cutaneous follicle center lymphoma (PCFCL).

ERS/EULAR clinical practice guidelines for connective tissue diseases associated interstitial lung disease.

Background: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a frequent manifestation of connective tissue diseases (CTDs) and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Clinical practice guidelines to standardise screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up for CTD-ILD are of high importance for optimised patient care.

Methods: A European Respiratory Society and European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology task force committee, composed of pulmonologists, rheumatologists, pathologists, radiologists, methodologists and patient representatives, developed recommendations based on PICO (Patients, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes) questions with grading of the evidence according to the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations) methodology and complementary narrative questions agreed on by both societies.

Target RNA recognition drives PIWI complex assembly for transposon silencing.

PIWI-clade Argonaute proteins and their associated PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are essential guardians of genome integrity, silencing transposable elements through distinct nuclear and cytoplasmic pathways. Nuclear PIWI proteins direct heterochromatin formation at transposon loci, while cytoplasmic PIWIs cleave transposon transcripts to initiate piRNA amplification. Both processes rely on target RNA recognition by PIWI-piRNA complexes, yet how this leads to effector recruitment is unclear.

The art of diagnosing rare skin tumors: Can DL-CNNs enhance dermatologists' diagnostic accuracy?

Importance: Deep learning convolutional neural networks (DL-CNN) achieved diagnostic accuracies comparable to dermatologists in controlled test environments. However, their performance in diagnosing rare skin tumors (RST) remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate a binary DL-CNN's diagnostic performance in RST and assess the level of support for an international group of dermatologists.

Resources of Austrian hospital-based departments of neurology and psychiatry for new amyloid-antibody therapies in early Alzheimer dementia : A survey of the Austrian Alzheimer Society.

Background: Disease-modifying therapies with amyloid-antibodies will soon be available for patients with early Alzheimer's disease, which necessitates diagnostic and therapeutic resources in hospital and outpatient settings.

Methods: The Austrian Alzheimer Society developed an online questionnaire to survey Austrian hospital-based departments of neurology and psychiatry regarding resources for amyloid-antibody therapies.

Results: Between May and October 2023, 30 out of 41 neurology (73%) and 12 out of 33 psychiatry departments (36%) responded.

Analysis of potential health impacts of road and rail traffic noise, using noise at residential locations in Austria as an example.

Background: Environmental noise, particularly from road and railway traffic, has been identified as a significant public health concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted the adverse effects of noise exposure on cardiovascular health, including ischemic heart disease (IHD). Despite the European Union's regulations on air pollution, there are no mandatory limits for environmental noise exposure, necessitating further investigation into its health impacts.

A framework to mine laser microdissection-based omics data and uncover regulators of pancreatic cancer heterogeneity.

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common and aggressive form of pancreatic cancer, exhibits profound intratumor morphological heterogeneity, complicating the elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanisms driving its progression.

Results: We present and validate an optimized framework for RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of multiple spatially resolved laser micro-dissected tumor areas (LMD-seq), along with methodological and analytical details to maximize reproducibility and data mining. This approach enhances sensitivity in detecting lowly expressed genes, outperforming single-cell RNA-seq methods, particularly in identifying rare tumor cell populations and transcriptional programs with low expression.

AlphaMissense prediction for the evaluation of missense variants in the diagnostic setting of neuromuscular disorders.

Next-generation sequencing has improved diagnostic outcomes for neuromuscular disorders, but interpreting rare missense variants remains challenging. We evaluated AlphaMissense, a recently developed machine learning tool, for predicting missense variant pathogenicity, using 45 (likely) pathogenic variants and 21 variants of uncertain significance from 58 deeply phenotyped patients. AlphaMissense predicted 69% of pathogenic variants correctly, but also classified 62% of variants of uncertain significance as pathogenic.

Attitudes of psychiatric staff toward coercion: nationwide AttCo study.

Background: Attitudes of mental health professionals toward coercion are a potential tool in reducing the use of coercive measures in psychiatry.

Aims: This study, part of the nationwide Attitudes toward Coercion (AttCo) project, aimed to assess staff attitudes on a nationwide and multiprofessional scale across adult, child and adolescent, and forensic psychiatric departments.

Method: During 9 weeks in 2023, 1702 psychiatric staff members across Germany filled out a survey including gender, age, profession, work experience and setting, and the validated Staff Attitude to Coercion Scale (SACS).

Odanacatib Coating Supports Osseointegration of Implants: A Preclinical Study.

Introduction: Odanacatib (ODN), a cathepsin K inhibitor, is a drug that reduces bone resorption while preserving bone formation. ODN was initially developed for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis, but further development as a systemic medication has been discontinued. Here, we propose ODN as a topical treatment, the coating of dental implants, to achieve an anabolic shift of early osseointegration.

Using adaptive optics to assess hyporeflective clump speed and size in age-related macular degeneration in the PINNACLE Study. (PINNACLE Study Report 6).

Background/objectives: Hyporeflective clumps (HRC) are a common finding in adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy (AOO) of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). They appear on optical coherence tomography (OCT) as hyperreflective foci (HRF) or abutting the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) layer as RPE thickening. The cellular origin of HRF is debated between migrated RPE cells and mononuclear phagocytes (MP).

Inhibition of YB-1 phosphorylation enhances cisplatin activity and disrupts cell division in pleural mesothelioma.

Background: The cold-shock domain protein YB-1 is overexpressed in pleural mesothelioma (PM) and was shown to contribute to increased cell migration and platinum resistance.

Methods: Phosphorylation of YB-1 at position serine 102 was analysed by immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence and immunoblotting in PM tissue specimens and cell lines. Intracellular localisation experiments involved immunoblotting, transfection of fluorescent protein-tagged YB-1 and confocal imaging.

ERS/EULAR clinical practice guidelines for connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung diseaseDeveloped by the task force for connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR)Endorsed by the European Reference Network on rare respiratory diseases (ERN-LUNG).

Background: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a frequent manifestation of connective tissue diseases (CTDs) and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Clinical practice guidelines to standardise screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up for CTD-ILD are of high importance for optimised patient care.

Methods: A European Respiratory Society and European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology task force committee, composed of pulmonologists, rheumatologists, pathologists, radiologists, methodologists and patient representatives, developed recommendations based on PICO (Patients, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes) questions with grading of the evidence according to the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations) methodology and complementary narrative questions agreed on by both societies.

Efficacy of Spatial Repellents in Malaria Prevention: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

The efficacy of spatial repellents in preventing malaria infections is unclear. In the present study, a meta-analysis of four randomized controlled trials conducted in China, Indonesia, and Kenya, involving 6,745 participants, was conducted to assess the efficacy of spatial repellents in reducing malaria infections. The risk of malaria infection was lower with the use of spatial repellents (681 [20.

Too stressed for sex? Associations between stress and sex in daily life.

Objective: Although it is deeply ingrained in our beliefs that stress affects sexual experience and behavior, factual knowledge about this interplay is scarce despite significant impacts on health. This ambulatory assessment study examined the bidirectional association between stress and sexuality (desire, arousal, activity) in daily life, considering gender differences. Stress was assessed using a multidimensional measurement approach, with the inclusion of cortisol analysis for the first time in this context.