bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A Pilot Study of Urine Oxytocin as an Objective Biomarker for Chronic Pain
Authors: Ono Daisuke , Matsusaki Takashi , Matsuoka Yoshikazu , Kaku Ryuji , Morimatsu Hiroshi 
Published: March 2024

Background: Measuring pain objectively or quantitatively is difficult. Since urine oxytocin (OXT) concentration has been reported to be potentially associated with chronic pain. Purpose: We conducted a pilot study to evaluate the relationship between changes in numerical rating scale (NRS) score following nerve block and urine OXT concentration in patients with chronic pain. Methods: We investigated 19 chronic pain patients who were admitted to our hospital for nerve intervention. NRS score and urine OXT concentration were assessed before and after the nerve block. Results: NRS scores were 7 [6, 9] and 2 [1, 4] (median [interquartile range]) before and after the treatment intervention, respectively. Urinary OXT levels were 523 [293, 743] and 531 [308, 887] pg/mL (median [interquartile range]) before and after the treatment, respectively. We compared the group with greater improvement in NRS after the treatment intervention and those with less improvement. The group with greater improvement in NRS after the treatment intervention showed a greater increase in OXT level. However, baseline urine OXT concentrations were highly variable in patients with chronic pain and the changes in urinary OXT concentrations were also variable. Conclusion: Based on this pilot study, the utility of urine OXT concentration as an objective biomarker of chronic pain needs further investigation.
Radiological Progression and Predictors of Radiological Progression in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with Conventional Synthetic Disease-modifying Agents
Authors: Parikh Taral , Yadav Sandeep , Balakrishnan C. 
Published: March 2024

Aim: To study the clinical and serological predictors of radiological progression at one year in a cohort of Indian patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: In this prospective open-label observational study, consecutive patients with early RA (<six months) were examined at baseline and at each visit (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months) for disease activity, DAS ESR 28 and European League Against Rheumatism response. Radiography of the hands and feet was performed at baseline and at one year of treatment, and radiologic progression was assessed using van der Heijde’s Sharp score. The prognostic factors were evaluated using a logistic regression model. Results: Fifty-one eligible patients were analysed for disease outcomes, whereas 43 were eligible for radiographic progression. The mean duration of RA was 3.4 ± 1.85 months. At baseline, 96% of the patients had moderate to high disease activity. The proportion of patients with erosions increased from 16.3% to 37.2% at one year, whereas that of patients with joint space narrowing (JSN) increased from 21% to 39.5%. At one year, the mean increase in total Sharp’s score was 1.67, while 32.5% of patients had radiological progression. Age of onset, presence of erosions, JSN, anticitrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) titre and tender joint counts at baseline were associated with radiographic progression at one year. However, in the multivariate analysis, none of the variables predicted radiographic damage. Only JSN was positively associated with progression at one year. Conclusion: Age at onset, presence of erosions, JSN, ACPA titre and tender joint counts at baseline were associated with radiographic progression at one year, but further studies are required to confirm these results.
Safety and efficacy of early carotid artery stenting in patients with symptomatic stenosis
Authors: Rodríguez Isabel , Gramegna Laura Ludovica , Requena Manuel , Rizzuti Michele , Elosua Iker , Mayol Jordi , Olivé-Gadea Marta , Diana Francesco , Rodrigo-Gisbert Marc , Muchada Marián , Rivera Eila , García-Tornel Álvaro , Rizzo Federica , De Dios Marta , Rodríguez-Luna David , Piñana Carlos , Pagola Jorge , Hernández David , Juega Jesús , Rodríguez Noelia , Quintana Manuel , Molina Carlos , Ribo Marc , Tomasello Alejandro 
Published: March 2024

Background Symptomatic carotid artery stenosis is a significant contributor to ischemic strokes. Carotid artery stenting (CAS) is usually indicated for secondary stroke prevention. This study evaluates the safety and efficacy of CAS performed within a short time frame from symptom onset. Methods We conducted a single-center, retrospective study of consecutive patients who underwent CAS for symptomatic carotid stenosis within eight days of symptom onset from July 2019 to January 2022. Data on demographics, medical history, procedural details, and follow-up outcomes were analyzed. The primary outcome measure was the recurrence of the stroke within the first month post-procedure. Secondary outcomes included mortality, the rate of intra-procedural complications, and hyperperfusion syndrome. Results We included 93 patients with a mean age of 71.7 ± 11.7 years. The median time from symptom onset to CAS was 96 h. The rate of stroke recurrence was 5.4% in the first month, with a significant association between the number of stents used and increased recurrence risk. Mortality within the first month was 3.2%, with an overall mortality rate of 11.8% after a median follow-up of 19 months. Intra-procedural complications were present in five (5.4%) cases and were related to the number of stents used ( p = 0.002) and post-procedural angioplasty ( p = 0.045). Hyperperfusion syndrome occurred in 3.2% of cases. Conclusion Early CAS within the high-risk window post-symptom onset is a viable secondary stroke prevention strategy in patients with symptomatic carotid artery stenosis. The procedure rate of complication is acceptable, with a low recurrence of stroke. However, further careful selection of patients for this procedural strategy is crucial to optimize outcomes.
Middle meningeal artery embolization for the treatment of unilateral large chronic subdural hematoma patients with significant midline shift: A single-center experience
Authors: Niu Yin , Zhang Qiang , Jiang Zhouyang , Li Wenyan , Chen Zhi 
Published: March 2024

Background The amount of midline shift (MLS) considered safe for middle meningeal artery embolization (MMAE) in patients with chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) has not been established. Whether MMAE could be used as upfront treatment for unilateral large CSDH patients with significant MLS (>1 cm) has not been reported. Objective To investigate the efficacy and safety of MMAE in unilateral large CSDH patients with MLS > 1 cm. Methods Eleven carefully selected CSDH patients with mild or moderate symptoms and significant MLS > 1 cm from 1 May 2021 to 31 August 2022 were included in the study. All patients were treated with MMAE using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) particles. Outcomes were assessed clinically and with interval imaging studies at follow-up. Results All 19 MMAs (unilateral embolization in three patients and bilateral embolization in eight patients) were successfully embolized. All 11 patients were followed for subsequent months, and there was no recurrence and enlargement of CSDH. Procedural adverse events, mortality, or complications were not observed. The average time to achieve a 50% reduction in MLS was approximately four weeks, while it took approximately eight weeks to achieve a 50% reduction in maximal volume. All 11 patients showed improvement in their neurological symptoms at three days post-operation, including four hemiplegic patients. Conclusions MMAE may demonstrate safety in carefully selected CSDH patients with significant midline shift (MLS > 1 cm), particularly in those who are not suitable for surgery, thus providing a potential alternative approach.
Feasibility of ultrasound measurement of tracheal diameter in patients undergoing severe scoliosis orthopedic surgery: A randomized trial
Authors: Tian Ying , Yu Mingshuai , Zhang Ke , Chen Zuqi , Xiao Tianke 
Published: March 2024

Objective To explore the feasibility of ultrasound measurement of the transverse diameter of the cervical trachea at its narrowest point in patients undergoing severe scoliosis orthopedic surgery. Methods A total of 110 patients, aged 18-65, who scheduled for elective orthopedic surgery for severe scoliosis were included. Prior to surgery, all patients underwent two types of tracheal inner diameter measurements: (1) CT measurement of the anteroposterior diameter (Dmin,AP) and transverse diameter (Dmin,T) of the cervical trachea at its narrowest point; and (2) ultrasound measurement of Dmin,T. Based on the measurement results, the patients were randomly divided into two groups, the CT group ( n = 55) and the ultrasound group ( n = 55). We compared the Dmin,AP and Dmin,T measured by CT for all patients. Then, we compared CT and ultrasound measurements of Dmin,T. Furthermore, we conducted an analysis to determine the correlation and consistency between the two methods. Additionally, we examined the success rate of first-attempt tracheal intubation and the occurrence rate of tracheal tube being too wide or too narrow between the two groups, and assessed the occurrence of postoperative 24-h pharyngeal pain and hoarseness. Results When comparing the Dmin,AP and Dmin,T measured by CT in all patients, a statistically significant difference was observed ( p < .001). When comparing the measurements of Dmin,T between CT and ultrasound in all patients, no statistically significant differences were found ( p > .05). The correlation coefficient (r) between CT and ultrasound measurements of Dmin,T was 0.849 ( p < .001). The mean difference in Dmin,T was 0.19 mm, and the limits of agreement (LoA) were −2.24 mm to 2.62 mm. Conclusions Ultrasound measurement of Dmin,T in severe scoliosis patients is feasible and provides valuable guidance for the selection of endotracheal tube sizes. It serves as a non-invasive and bedside auxiliary examination method for perioperative airway assessment.
Polling to vaccination stations: Brexit’s influence on immunisation uptake
Authors: Gallagher Mitchell 
Published: March 2024

This study investigates political decisions and epidemiological developments. Employing a quantitative approach, this paper examines proportions of votes advocating Brexit with the proportional rates of Covid-19 vaccinations among individuals aged 18 years and above. A discernible pattern suggests a link between lower vaccination rates and pro-Brexit inclinations. This research finds a correlative relationship between political behaviour in voting for Brexit, and epidemiological outcomes measured by the uptake of vaccinations among various urban centres, towns, and local governmental jurisdictions within the United Kingdom. However, the results also show socioeconomic control variables are statistically more significant in predicting vaccination rates.
Genomic imbalance analysis provides new insight into prognostic factors in adult and pediatric T-ALL
Authors: Balducci Estelle , Simonin Mathieu , Duployez Nicolas , Steimlé Thomas , Dourthe Marie-Emilie , Villarese Patrick , Ducassou Stéphane , Arnoux Isabelle , Cayuela Jean-Michel , Balsat Marie , Courtois Lucien , Andrieu Guillaume , Touzart Aurore , Huguet Françoise , Petit Arnaud , Ifrah Norbert , Dombret Hervé , Baruchel André , Macintyre Elizabeth , Preudhomme Claude , Boissel Nicolas , Asnafi Vahid 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
Given the poor outcome of refractory and relapsing T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), identifying prognostic markers is still challenging. Using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array analysis, we provide a comprehensive analysis of genomic imbalances in a cohort of 317 newly diagnosed patients with T-ALL including 135 children and 182 adults with respect to clinical and biological features and outcomes. SNP array results identified at least 1 somatic genomic imbalance in virtually all patients with T-ALL (∼96%). Del(9)(p21) (∼70%) and UPD(9)p21)/CDKN2A/B (∼28%) were the most frequent genomic imbalances. Unexpectedly del(13)(q14)/RB1/DLEU1 (∼14%) was the second most frequent copy number variant followed by del(6)(q15)/CASP8AP2 (∼11%), del(1)(p33)/SIL-TAL1 (∼11%), del(12)(p13)ETV6/CDKN1B (∼9%), del(18)(p11)/PTPN2 (∼9%), del(1)(p36)/RPL22 (∼9%), and del(17)(q11)/NF1/SUZ12 (∼8%). SNP array also revealed distinct profiles of genomic imbalances according to age, immunophenotype, and oncogenetic subgroups. In particular, adult patients with T-ALL demonstrated a significantly higher incidence of del(1)(p36)/RPL22, and del(13)(q14)/RB1/DLEU1, and lower incidence of del(9)(p21) and UPD(9p21)/CDKN2A/B. We determined a threshold of 15 genomic imbalances to stratify patients into high- and low-risk groups of relapse. Survival analysis also revealed the poor outcome, despite the low number of affected cases, conferred by the presence of chromothripsis (n = 6, ∼2%), del(16)(p13)/CREBBP (n = 15, ∼5%) as well as the newly-identified recurrent gain at 6q27 involving MLLT4 (n = 10, ∼3%). Genomic complexity, del(16)(p13)/CREBBP and gain at 6q27 involving MLLT4, maintained their significance in multivariate analysis for survival outcome. Our study thus demonstrated that whole genome analysis of imbalances provides new insights to refine risk stratification in T-ALL. This trial was registered at www.ClinicalTrials.gov as #NCT00222027 and #NCT00327678, and as #FRALLE 2000T trial.
Identification of the estrogen-active compounds via integrating effect-directed analysis and non-target screening in soils of the northeastern China
Authors: Feng Qiang , Yang Li , Chen Jie , Li Fang , Fang Fang , Guo Jinsong , Chen Zhongli , Shao Ying 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
Background
The gaps between estrogenic effect and its effect-active compounds exist frequently due to a large number of compounds that have been reported to induce this effect and the occurrence of pollutants in environments as mixtures. Therefore, identifying the estrogen-active compounds is of importance for environmental management and pollution treatment. In the current study, the effect-directed analysis (EDA) and non-targeted screening (NTS) were integrated to identify the estrogen-active compounds in soils of the rural area with different socioeconomic types (industrial, farming and plantation village) in Northeast China.

Results
The cytotoxicity results indicated that the industrial and farming villages showed cytotoxic effects. The detection rates of estrogenic effects for samples of winter and summer were 100% and 87%, respectively. Of which, the effects were found to be stronger in summer than in winter, with significant difference observed from the farming village (0.1–11.3 EEQ μg/kg dry weight). A total of 159 chemicals were detected by NTS. By integrating EDA, triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) and indole were successfully identified from a raw sample and its fraction, explaining up to 19.31% of the estrogen activity.

Conclusions
The present study demonstrates that the successful identification of seven estrogen-active compounds in rural areas of northeastern China can be achieved through the combination of effect-directed analysis (EDA) and non-targeted screening (NTS). This finding is beneficial for risk monitoring and pollution management.
Improving somatic exome sequencing performance by biological replicates
Authors: Cebeci Yunus Emre , Erturk Rumeysa Aslihan , Ergun Mehmet Arif , Baysan Mehmet 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
Background
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies offer fast and inexpensive identification of DNA sequences. Somatic sequencing is among the primary applications of NGS, where acquired (non-inherited) variants are based on comparing diseased and healthy tissues from the same individual. Somatic mutations in genetic diseases such as cancer are tightly associated with genomic instability. Genomic instability increases heterogenity, complicating sequencing efforts further, a task already challenged by the presence of short reads and repetitions in human DNA. This leads to low concordance among studies and limits reproducibility. This limitation is a significant problem since identified mutations in somatic sequencing are major biomarkers for diagnosis and the primary input of targeted therapies. Benchmarking studies were conducted to assess the error rates and increase reproducibility. Unfortunately, the number of somatic benchmarking sets is very limited due to difficulties in validating true somatic variants. Moreover, most NGS benchmarking studies are based on relatively simpler germline (inherited) sequencing. Recently, a comprehensive somatic sequencing benchmarking set was published by Sequencing Quality Control Phase 2 (SEQC2). We chose this dataset for our experiments because it is a well-validated, cancer-focused dataset that includes many tumor/normal biological replicates. Our study has two primary goals. First goal is to determine how replicate-based consensus approaches can improve the accuracy of somatic variant detection systems. Second goal is to develop highly predictive machine learning (ML) models by employing replicate-based consensus variants as labels during the training phase.

Results
Ensemble approaches that combine alternative algorithms are relatively common; here, as an alternative, we study the performance enhancement potential of biological replicates. We first developed replicate-based consensus approaches that utilize the biological replicates available in this study to improve variant calling performance. Subsequently, we trained ML models using these biological replicates and achieved performance comparable to optimal ML models, those trained using high-confidence variants identified in advance.

Conclusions
Our replicate-based consensus approach can be used to improve variant calling performance and develop efficient ML models. Given the relative ease of obtaining biological replicates, this strategy allows for the development of efficient ML models tailored to specific datasets or scenarios.
Predictive value of estimated plasma volume for postoperative hypotension in percutaneous intramyocardial septal radiofrequency ablation treating for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy
Authors: Shan Bo , Li Jing , Shi Zhangwei , Han Chao , Zhang Juan , Zhao Jia , Hu Rui , Liu Liwen , Ta Shengjun 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
Background
Estimated plasma volume status (ePVS) estimated by the Duarte formula is associated with clinical outcomes in patients with heart failure. It remains unclear the predictive value of the ePVS to the postoperative hypotension (POH) in percutaneous intramyocardial septal radiofrequency ablation (PIMSRA) treating hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM).

Methods
Data of HOCM patients who underwent PIMSRA were retrospectively collected. Preoperative ePVS was calculated using the Duarte formulas which derived from hemoglobin and hematocrit ratios. Clinical variables including physical assessment, biological and echocardiographic parameters were recorded. Patients were labeled with or without POH according to the medical record in the hospital. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression were performed to evaluate the association between ePVS and POH. Using different thresholds derived from quartiles and the best cutoff value of the receiver operating characteristic curve, the diagnostic performance of ePVS was quantified.

Results
Among the 405 patients included in this study, 53 (13.1%) patients were observed with symptomatic POH. Median (IQR) of ePVS in overall patients was 3.77 (3.27~4.40) mL/g and in patients with POH were higher than those without POH. The ePVS was associated with POH, with the odds ratio of 1.669 (95% CI 1.299 ~ 2.144) per mL/g. After adjusted by potential confounders, ePVS remained independently associated with POH, with the approximate odds ratio in different models.

Conclusion
The preoperative ePVS derived from the Duarte formulas was independently associated with postoperative hypotension in HOCM patients who underwent PIMSRA and showed prognostic value to the risk stratification of postoperative management.

Trial registration
NCT06003478 (22/08/2023).
Translation and validation of menopause quick 6 (MQ6) into the Malay language
Authors: Manoharan Anusha , Harris Megat Muhammad , Chin Beh Hooi , Ming Koh Wen , Asmuee Zamzurina , Salamon Norafini , Pefer Jerampang , Radhiyah H. , Hamimmah M. Nadia , Goldstein Susan , Ramasamy Shamala , Sreeramareddy Chandrashekhar T. 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
Background
Inquiring conservative Asian women about their menopausal symptoms is often challenging in crowded primary healthcare clinics. Furthermore, the subject matter is culturally sensitive to most Malaysian women. Hence, the translation of the MQ6 into Malay is crucial to enable self-administration, eliminating the necessity for interviewers and mitigating potential respondent shyness.

Methods
The Menopause Quick 6 (MQ6) questionnaire was translated into the Malay language with an addition of an item, henceforth termed MQ6 (M). Forward and backward translation was performed. Face and content validity were conducted. MQ6 (M) was self-administered to 400 women aged between 40 and 60 attending six primary healthcare clinics in Malaysia. To ascertain the reliability for MQ6 (M), corrected Item-Total Correlation, Squared Multiple Correlation, Cronbach’s Alpha if the Item is Deleted, and Kuder-Richardson Reliability Coefficients (KR20). Exploratory factor analysis was done to determine its’ construct validity.

Results
The outcome of the validation was satisfactory. By the Lawshe method, the content validity ratios ranged from 0.6 to 1.0 and the content validity index was 0.914. The Internal consistency for the MQ6(M) Cronbach’s alpha was 0.711 while Kuder-Richardson Reliability Coefficients KR20 was 0.676. Factor loading of all four items is above 0.70, indicating a well-defined structure. Whereas factor loading for three items fell within the range of 0.50–0.69 indicating a practically significant threshold for a new questionnaire.

Conclusion
The MQ6 (M) has acceptable reliability and construct validity to be considered as a self-administered screening tool in primary care clinics in Malaysia.