Evaluation of Intraoperative Adverse Events and Perioperative Outcomes in Pediatric Neurosurgery.

Introduction: Quality monitoring and improvement are crucial in pediatric neurosurgery for effective risk assessment and surgical preparation. This study evaluates the reliability of the ClassIntra classification for intraoperative complications and its potential for predicting postoperative outcomes in pediatric patients.

Material And Methods: In this prospective cohort study at a tertiary care center, we analyzed 47 pediatric patients undergoing various neurosurgical procedures.

Endothelial SR-B1 is dispensable for thermogenesis but promotes selective cholesterol uptake in brown adipose tissue.

In an interplay with parenchymal cells of metabolically active organs such as heart and adipose tissues, vascular endothelial cells are important for the regulation of nutrient uptake and organ-specific energy metabolism. Based on high expression of the scavenger receptor B1 (SR-B1) in capillary endothelial cells of white and brown adipose tissue (BAT), we proposed a functional role for this receptor in lipid handling and adaptive thermogenesis. To address this hypothesis, we generated mice with an endothelial-specific knockout of SR-B1 and performed metabolic turnover and indirect calorimetry studies in response to environmental cues such as cold exposure and high fat diet feeding.

Outcome of systemic therapy in patients with advanced rare skin cancers: A retrospective multicenter DeCOG study of 209 patients.

Introduction: For rare skin cancers, few data exist on the outcome of systemic therapies, particularly immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI). The present study analysed the real-world use of different systemic therapies including ICI, and its outcome in patients with advanced rare skin cancers.

Methods: This retrospective multicenter study included patients who received systemic therapy for advanced, non-resectable cutaneous angiosarcoma (AS), Kaposi sarcoma (KS), pleomorphic dermal sarcoma (PDS), or cutaneous adnexal carcinoma (CAC).

Interdisciplinary evidence-based tumor board simulation training in surgical medical education.

Purpose: Evidence-based medicine (EBM), precision medicine and interdisciplinarity are becoming increasingly important in medical education. The purposeful connection between EBM and interdisciplinary work is given in the context of a tumor board, since therapy decisions are discussed here in an interdisciplinary team based on current evidence-based guidelines. To date, there has been little focus on either topic.

Impact of bleeding and thrombosis on outcome of 945 COVID-19 VV-ECMO cases from a German registry.

Unlabelled: Bleeding and thromboembolic events (BTE) increase the mortality of COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The current analysis aimed to assess frequency and determinants of BTE according to their location and severity in a retrospective analysis of the German ECMO COVID-19 registry. Logistic regression was applied to identify factors influencing ICU survival as well as variables associated with risks of BTE.

The effect of TERT promoter mutation on predicting meningioma outcomes: a multi-institutional cohort analysis.

Background: Molecular aberrations have been incorporated into tumour classification guidelines of meningioma. TERT-promoter (TERTp) mutation is associated with worse prognosis and is designated a WHO grade 3 biomarker. However, it remains unclear whether TERTp mutation is context-dependent, with other co-occurring genetic alterations potentially driving its association with prognosis.

Entangled cellular and molecular relationships at the sensory neuron-cancer interface.

Peripheral sensory neurons, once regarded merely as a passive route for nociceptive signals, are now acknowledged as active participants in solid tumor progression. This review explores how sensory neurons influence and are influenced by the tumor microenvironment (TME) through both chemical and electrical signaling, underscoring their pivotal role in the emerging field of cancer neuroscience. We summarize recent findings indicating that cancer-neuron interactions vary among different organs and experimental models, highlighting the ways in which various tumors recruit and reprogram sensory neurons to establish mutual communication loops that foster malignancy.

Decreased health service use among migrants improves through an internal locus of control, especially in men.

We explore the role of internal locus of control (LOC), migration status and gender, in healthcare utilization, using the Andersen Model. It addresses the knowledge gap in understanding how these factors influence healthcare access, especially in migrant populations. Utilization was assessed using the 2020 German Socioeconomic Panel with 26,028 adults (6,968 migrants).

A nanobody specific to prefusion glycoprotein B neutralizes HSV-1 and HSV-2.

The nine human herpesviruses, including herpes simplex virus 1 and 2, human cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus, present a significant burden to global public health. Their envelopes contain at least ten different glycoproteins, which are necessary for host cell tropism, attachment and entry. The best conserved among them, glycoprotein B (gB), is essential as it performs membrane fusion by undergoing extensive rearrangements from a prefusion to postfusion conformation.

Investigating Saccade-Onset Locked EEG Signatures of Face Perception during Free-Viewing in a Naturalistic Virtual Environment.

Current research strives to investigate cognitive processes under natural conditions. Virtual reality and EEG are promising techniques combining naturalistic settings with close experimental control. However, many questions and technical challenges remain, e.

Baseline Amplitude Ratios of Median Nerve Somatosensory Evoked Potentials: Clinical Implications During Carotid Endarterectomy.

Objectives: To (1) examine associations between the ipsi-to-contralateral median nerve somatosensory evoked potential (mSSEP) baseline amplitude ratio (=IAR) and clinical symptoms, cerebral infarction, or ischemic injury in the ipsilateral middle cerebral artery territory in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA); and (2) evaluate the IAR as a predictor of clamp-induced ischemia.

Design: A retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Single-center study, Department of Anesthesiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

Pathogenic Cardiomyopathy-Associated Gene Variants and Prognosis in Atrial Fibrillation: Results in 18,000 Clinical Trial Participants.

Background: Genetic variants in cardiomyopathy genes are associated with risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), although data on clinical outcomes for AF patients with such variants remain sparse.

Objectives: We aimed to study the prognostic implication of rare cardiomyopathy-associated pathogenic variants (CMP-PLP) in AF patients from large, well-phenotyped clinical trials.

Methods: CMP-PLP carriers were identified using exome sequencing in 5 multinational trials from the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction study group (ENGAGE AF, FOURIER, SAVOR, PEGASUS, and DECLARE), with replication in the EAST-AFNET-4 trial.

Catecholamines reduce choice history biases in perceptual decision making.

Theoretical accounts postulate that the catecholaminergic neuromodulator noradrenaline shapes cognition and behavior by reducing the impact of prior expectations on learning, inference, and decision-making. A ubiquitous effect of dynamic priors on perceptual decisions under uncertainty is choice history bias: the tendency to systematically repeat, or alternate, previous choices, even when stimulus categories are presented in a random sequence. Here, we directly test for a causal impact of catecholamines on these priors.

The Role of CELMoD Agents in Multiple Myeloma.

Although recent decades have seen continued improvements in survival for patients with multiple myeloma, the disease remains largely incurable, and most patients will experience relapse and/or become refractory to treatment. There thus remains an urgent unmet need for novel treatments, particularly for those patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Novel treatment modalities, such as targeted protein degradation, have attracted particular interest due to their ability to expand the range of druggable protein targets in myeloma cells.

Sex-specific outcomes after transcatheter or surgical treatment of aortic valve stenosis: the DEDICATE-DZHK6 trial.

Background And Aims: Aortic stenosis may be managed differently in women and men, but evidence remains limited. Sex-specific characteristics and outcomes of low- to intermediate-risk patients assigned to transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) or surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) from the DEDICATE-DZHK6 trial are described.

Methods: The DEDICATE-DZHK6 trial demonstrated non-inferiority for the primary outcome of all-cause death or stroke at 1 year.

Influence of Sex and Diagnosis on Clinical Variables and Neurocognitive Performance in Severe Mental Illness. Results From the PsyCourse Study.

Introduction: Bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ) are serious mental illnesses (SMI) with overlapping symptoms but distinct differences in onset and course. Sex differences are an area of growing interest in SMI. This study aims to examine potential interactions between sex and diagnosis across a broad range of variables, to compare males and females within SZ and BD, and to investigate sex-specific group differences.

Repeat-associated ataxias in a German patient cohort analysed by targeted parallel long-read sequencing.

Hereditary adult-onset ataxias are a heterogeneous group of phenotypically overlapping conditions, often caused by pathogenic expansions of short tandem repeats. Currently, 18 repeat disorders with a core phenotype of adult-onset ataxia are known. Diagnosis typically relies on sequential PCR-based methods, which are labour-intensive and lack precision.

How to Interpret Quality of Life Assessment of Patients With Chronic Wounds Using the Wound-QoL.

The Wound-QoL assesses patients' health-related quality of life. Quick and valid interpretation of the results is crucial, but no thresholds have yet been established. Additionally, counting top box responses might be a quick approximation to the Wound-QoL score itself.

The current landscape of single-port robotic surgery in urology.

The advent of the purpose-built da Vinci single-port robotic platform marks a pivotal advancement in minimally invasive urological surgery. Designed to overcome the ergonomic and technical limitations of prior single-site approaches, the single-port system enables complex procedures through a single incision, with enhanced dexterity, optimized use of confined spaces and improved cosmetic and peri-operative outcomes. The single-port system has been increasingly used across a wide range of urological indications, including robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, partial nephrectomy, nephroureterectomy and reconstructive surgeries such as pyeloplasty and ureteral re-implantation.

Progressive changes in phenotype, transcriptome and proliferation capacity characterise continued maturation and migration of intestinal cDCs in homeostasis.

Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) are important antigen presenting cells which link innate and adaptive immunity by transferring antigenic information from peripheral organs to T cells in lymph nodes (LNs). However, despite their central function in the induction of adaptive immune responses, the kinetics and molecular regulation of the cDC life cycle and migration remain poorly understood. Using a variety of in vivo techniques, we examine the kinetics of cDC turnover in the intestine and address the molecular changes throughout the various stages of the cDC life cycle - from tissue entry and differentiation to CCR7 upregulation and subsequent migration into draining LNs.

Orthopaedic physicians' awareness, diagnostic challenges and referral barriers in axial spondyloarthritis: insights from a nationwide survey in Germany.

Background: Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is a chronic inflammatory disease primarily affecting the spine and sacroiliac joints, potentially leading to pain, stiffness and disability. Despite diagnostic advances, delays persist. Orthopaedic physicians, often the first specialists consulted for back pain, play a crucial role in early detection and referral to rheumatologists.