bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A lymph node mediastinal foreign body reaction mimicking nodal metastasis: A case series
Authors: Zuccatosta Lina , Latini Maria Agnese , Mei Federico , Bonifazi Martina , Barisione Emanuela , Salio Mario , Gasparini Stefano , Gonnelli Francesca 
Published: September 2022

IntroductionIn the last decades, many haemostatic substances included oxidized cellulose topically applied have been used during surgery and their use have become a common practice. Oxidized cellulose (OC) is one of the most used haemostatic substances. However, different studies have shown the persistence of OC deposits after surgical procedures that may simulate recurrent malignancies and abscesses. We present a case series of patients with enlarged on CT and PET-FDG positive lymphadenopathies due to foreign body inflammatory reaction to OC after lung surgery for pulmonary malignancies.MethodsRetrospective chart review of patients from 2021 to 2022 who underwent EBUS-TBNA for the characterization of hilar and/or mediastinal lymphadenopathies and a histopathological diagnosis of foreign body inflammatory reaction to OC.ResultsEightpatients were referred to “Ospedali Riuniti di Ancona” (n= 7) and “Ospedale San Martino” (Genoa) (n= 1) Interventional Pulmonology Units for the characterization of hilar and/or mediastinal lymphadenopathies. All the evaluated patients underwent surgical procedures for lung cancers within the previous 12 months. EBUS-TBNA was performed in all the patients to rule out nodal metastasis. The cyto-pathological evaluation revealed amorphous acellular eosinofilic material surrounded by inflammatory reaction. As no other apparent causes might explain this finding and considering the temporal relationship between the lymphadenopathy and the lung surgery, foreign body inflammatory reaction to OC is the most likely cause of the phenomenon.ConclusionIn patients who underwent surgery for lung cancer, especially within few months, the development of lymph node foreign body reaction due to surgical material retention should always be considered.
Association between fat mass and obesity-related variant and osteoarthritis risk: Integrated meta-analysis with bioinformatics
Authors: Zhao Kun , Nie Liuyan , Chin Grace Min Jun , Ye Xiangming , Sun Peng 
Published: September 2022

ObjectiveThe association of fat mass and obesity-related (FTO) gene with osteoarthritis (OA) risk has been investigated in multiple genome-wide association studies but showed inconsistent results. Our study aimed to assess FTO expression in different OA sequencing datasets and to meta-analyze whether FTO polymorphism was associated with the risk of osteoarthritis.MethodGene expression profiles were obtained from ArrayExpress, Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), and BioProject databases. Three electronic databases including PubMed and EMBASE were systematically retrieved to identify articles exploring the association between FTO polymorphisms and OA risk published before September 2022. Summary odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated to perform the result. Stata software was utilized to conduct analyses on predetermined ethnicity and gender subgroups and sensitivity.ResultsFTO gene was differentially expressed in the datasets from the UK. This systematic review and meta-analysis encompasses eight studies that revealed a significant association between FTO polymorphisms and OA risk [OR 1.07, 95% CI (1.03, 1.11), P &lt; 0.001] in the overall population. In subgroup analysis, a marked association was observed in European Caucasian [OR 1.08, 95% CI (1.04–1.12), P &lt; 0.001] and North American Caucasian with the Asian subgroups [OR 0.98, 95% CI (0.83–1. 6), P = 0.83] as an exception. Among the studies, four of them demonstrated attenuation in their OA risk after body mass index (BMI) adjustment in Caucasian populations.ConclusionFTO significant differential expression was associated with the increased risk of OA in Caucasian populations. Nevertheless, the causality between FTO polymorphisms and OA risk remains largely elusive. Hence, further studies with larger sample size are necessary to validate whether FTO gene polymorphism contributes to OA susceptibility.
Association between inflammatory cytokines in the aqueous humor and hyperreflective foci on optical coherence tomography in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy
Authors: Mao Jianbo , Chen Nuo , Zhang Shian , Fang Yuyan , Zheng Zicheng , Wu Sulan , Ye Xin , Chen Yijing , Chen Yiqi , Shen Lijun 
Published: September 2022

PurposeTo investigate the associations between cytokine levels in the aqueous humor (AH) and hyperreflective foci (HF) on spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV).MethodsThe prospective study included 63 eyes with nAMD, 44 with PCV, and 43 with cataracts (Controls). AH samples were obtained before anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy or cataract surgery. Cytokines interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-8, IL-10, interferon-inducible protein 10 (IP-10), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1), and VEGF were measured by multiplex bead assay. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central macular thickness (CMT), and the number of HF were evaluated at baseline and 1 month after anti-VEGF treatment.ResultsNo significances difference in IL-6 and IL-8 levels were noted among the three groups (P = 0.370 and P = 0.067). VEGF, IP-10, and IL-10 levels were significantly higher in nAMD and PCV groups than in Controls (all P &lt; 0.05). In nAMD, HF was positively correlated with VEGF (rs = 0.300, P = 0.025) and in eyes with HF group, VEGF and IL-10 were significantly higher than those without HF (P = 0.008 and P = 0.022). In PCV, no correlation was observed between HF and cytokines (all P &gt; 0.05). After anti-VEGF treatment, patients with HF in nAMD and PCV were predisposed to worse visual outcomes (P = 0.022 and P = 0.015) and a significantly greater reduction in CMT (P = 0.001 and P = 0.057). And nAMD patients with HF were more sensitive to anti-VEGF treatment than those without HF (P = 0.029).ConclusionsIn the nAMD group, HF was positively correlated with VEGF. Patients in nAMD with HF had elevated levels of VEGF and IL-10 and responded favorably to anti-VEGF. HF might serve as an inflammatory biomarker and a predictive factor for therapeutic efficacy in patients with nAMD.
Transfer learning approach based on computed tomography images for predicting late xerostomia after radiotherapy in patients with oropharyngeal cancer
Authors: Fanizzi Annarita , Scognamillo Giovanni , Nestola Alessandra , Bambace Santa , Bove Samantha , Comes Maria Colomba , Cristofaro Cristian , Didonna Vittorio , Di Rito Alessia , Errico Angelo , Palermo Loredana , Tamborra Pasquale , Troiano Michele , Parisi Salvatore , Villani Rossella , Zito Alfredo , Lioce Marco , Massafra Raffaella 
Published: September 2022

Background and purposeAlthough the latest breakthroughs in radiotherapy (RT) techniques have led to a decrease in adverse event rates, these techniques are still associated with substantial toxicity, including xerostomia. Imaging biomarkers could be useful to predict the toxicity risk related to each individual patient. Our preliminary work aims to develop a radiomic-based support tool exploiting pre-treatment CT images to predict late xerostomia risk in 3 months after RT in patients with oropharyngeal cancer (OPC).Materials and methodsWe performed a multicenter data collection. We enrolled 61 patients referred to three care centers in Apulia, Italy, out of which 22 patients experienced at least mild xerostomia 3 months after the end of the RT cycle. Pre-treatment CT images, clinical and dose features, and alcohol-smoking habits were collected. We proposed a transfer learning approach to extract quantitative imaging features from CT images by means of a pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture. An optimal feature subset was then identified to train an SVM classifier. To evaluate the robustness of the proposed model with respect to different manual contouring practices on CTs, we repeated the same image analysis pipeline on “fake” parotid contours.ResultsThe best performances were achieved by the model exploiting the radiomic features alone. On the independent test, the model reached median AUC, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity values of 81.17, 83.33, 71.43, and 90.91%, respectively. The model was robust with respect to diverse manual parotid contouring procedures.ConclusionRadiomic analysis could help to develop a valid support tool for clinicians in planning radiotherapy treatment, by providing a risk score of the toxicity development for each individual patient, thus improving the quality of life of the same patient, without compromising patient care.
Body shape and risk of glaucoma: A Mendelian randomization
Authors: Yuan Ruolan , Liu Kangcheng , Cai Yingjun , He Fei , Xiao Xiaoxiong , Zou Jing 
Published: September 2022

BackgroundBody size (BS) is one of the risk factors for the development of many clinical diseases, but the relationship between BS and glaucoma is controversial. Herein, we try to use Mendelian randomization (MR) method to study BS causal association with glaucoma risk from the genetic level.MethodsThe Body Size was determined through anthropometric traits (ATs), such as body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio adjusted by body mass index (WHRadjBMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and waist circumference (WC). Association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with each AT and glaucoma were determined individually from the aggregated data of the Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) consortium and the FinnGen study summary data (8,591 cases with glaucoma and 210,201 controls). To explore the role of BS and glaucoma, a two-sample MR analysis was performed on genome-wide association study (GWAS) data. Besides, three MR methods [inverse variance weighted (IVW), Weighted median, and MR-Egger regression] were used to get the whole causal estimate for multiple instrumental SNPs.ResultsBMI (OR = 1.20; 95% CI = 1.02–1.41; P = 0.03) and WC (OR = 1.32; 95% CI =1.04–1.69; P = 0.03) were associated with a risk of glaucoma. Besides, genetically predicted WHRadjBMI (OR = 1.10; 95% CI = 0.88–1.35; P = 0.43) and WHR (OR = 1.22; 95% CI = 0.93–1,572; P = 0.14) were not associated with glaucoma. No heterogeneity and directional pleiotropy were detected.ConclusionThe data of this study revealed that increased BMI and WC are potential risk factors for glaucoma, and WHRadjBMI and WHR are not associated with the occurrence of glaucoma.
Alpha3/alpha2 power ratios relate to performance on a virtual reality shopping task in ageing adults
Authors: Patchitt Joel , Porffy Lilla A. , Whomersley Gabriella , Szentgyorgyi Timea , Brett Jack , Mouchlianitis Elias , Mehta Mitul A. , Nottage Judith F. , Shergill Sukhi S. 
Published: September 2022

BackgroundAspects of cognitive function decline with age. This phenomenon is referred to as age-related cognitive decline (ARCD). Improving the understanding of these changes that occur as part of the ageing process can serve to enhance the detection of the more incapacitating neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, we employ novel methods to assess ARCD by exploring the utility of the alpha3/alpha2 electroencephalogram (EEG) power ratio – a marker of AD, and a novel virtual reality (VR) functional cognition task – VStore, in discriminating between young and ageing healthy adults.Materials and methodsTwenty young individuals aged 20–30, and 20 older adults aged 60–70 took part in the study. Participants underwent resting-state EEG and completed VStore and the Cogstate Computerised Cognitive Battery. The difference in alpha3/alpha2 power ratios between the age groups was tested using t-test. In addition, the discriminatory accuracy of VStore and Cogstate were compared using logistic regression and overlying receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Youden’s J statistic was used to establish the optimal threshold for sensitivity and specificity and model performance was evaluated with the DeLong’s test. Finally, alpha3/alpha2 power ratios were correlated with VStote and Cogstate performance.ResultsThe difference in alpha3/alpha2 power ratios between age cohorts was not statistically significant. On the other hand, VStore discriminated between age groups with high sensitivity (94%) and specificity (95%) The Cogstate Pre-clinical Alzheimer’s Battery achieved a sensitivity of 89% and specificity of 60%, and Cogstate Composite Score achieved a sensitivity of 83% and specificity of 85%. The differences between the discriminatory accuracy of VStore and Cogstate models were statistically significant. Finally, high alpha3/alpha2 power ratios correlated strongly with VStore (r = 0.73), the Cogstate Pre-clinical Alzheimer’s Battery (r = -0.67), and Cogstate Composite Score (r = -0.76).ConclusionWhile we did not find evidence that the alpha3/alpha2 power ratio is elevated in healthy ageing individuals compared to young individuals, we demonstrated that VStore can classify age cohorts with high accuracy, supporting its utility in the assessment of ARCD. In addition, we found preliminary evidence that elevated alpha3/alpha2 power ratio may be linked to lower cognitive performance.
Correlation Among Psychological Resilience, Social Support, and Coping Style in Patients With Complicated Hepatolithiasis
Authors: Wang Ying , Huang Chunqiu , Zhang Honghui , Cai Yimin , Shen Zhoumin , Hu Xiahong , Zhou Bifang , Yang Lifen , Chen Qian 
Published: September 2022

Objectives: To investigate the correlation between psychological resilience, social support, and coping styles in patients with complicated hepatolithiasis.Methods: The objective sampling method was used in this study to select a total of 156 patients with complicated hepatolithiasis in a Third-class Grade A hospital in Changsha, Hunan Province from January to December 2019. Self-designed general data questionnaire, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), and the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ) were used to conduct a questionnaire investigation. Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between psychological resilience, social support, and coping styles in patients with complicated hepatolithiasis.Results: Both the total score of psychological resilience (45.79 ± 16.28) and social support (35.71 ± 9.92) of patients with complicated hepatolithiasis were significantly lower than those of the domestic norm. The total score of psychological resilience of patients with complicated hepatolithiasis was positively correlated with the total score of social support (r = 0.570, p &lt; 0.01). The total score of psychological resilience and its three dimensions were positively correlated with the positive coping (r = 0.682, 0.673, 0.663, 0.535, p &lt; 0.01)and negatively correlated with negative coping (r = −0.240, −0.207, −0.221, −0.286, p &lt; 0.01).Conclusions: This study indicated that strengthening social support and improving the coping style of patients with complicated hepatolithiasis are helpful to improve their psychological resilience, which provided theory basis and reference for further intervention measures to improve social support system and coping styles.
High-Risk Intracranial Atherosclerotic Stenosis Despite Aggressive Medical Treatment: Protocol for a Prospective Nested Case-Control Study
Authors: Wang Tao , Luo Jichang , Liu Changyi , Yang Bin , Xu Ran , Li Long , Yang Kun , Zhang Chao , Wang Yabing , Chen Yanfei , Gao Peng , Chen Jian , Jiao Liqun , Ma Yan 
Published: September 2022

IntroductionIntracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) is one of the most important etiologies of ischemic stroke, especially in Asia. Although medical treatment was recommended as the first-line therapy for ICAD, the recurrent stroke rate was still high in severe stenosis of ICAD despite aggressive medical treatment. Traditionally, the degree of luminal stenosis is used as the principal index for stroke risk stratification in patients with ICAD, while recent evidence suggested that symptomatic atherosclerotic plaques were characterized by plaque features and hemodynamics. This prospective, longitudinal, and nested case-control study aims to identify multimodal imaging predictors of high-risk patients with ICAD refractory to medical treatment and explore a refined risk stratification model based on the above multimodal imaging predictors.MethodsThis prospective, longitudinal, and nested case-control study includes 400 symptomatic patients with ICAD with 50–99% of stenosis treated with aggressive medical therapy. All patients who meet the eligibility criteria are assessed by multimodal imaging examination from three aspects, including lumen stenosis, plaque characteristics, and hemodynamic features. The enrolled patients receive aggressive medical management, including antiplatelet therapy and cardiovascular risk control. The primary outcome is ischemic stroke or death attributable to the lesion of the target vessel within 1 year. The secondary endpoints are (1) any stroke or death; (2) all-cause mortality; (3) any stroke out of the territory of the responsible lesion; (4) functional outcome with the modified Rankin Scale (mRS).Ethics and DisseminationThis study has been approved by the ethics committee of our center ([2021]083) and has been prospectively registered (Registration No: ChiCTR2100048832). Study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at scientific meetings.
Automatic segmentation of the core of the acoustic radiation in humans
Authors: Siegbahn Malin , Engmér Berglin Cecilia , Moreno Rodrigo 
Published: September 2022

IntroductionAcoustic radiation is one of the most important white matter fiber bundles of the human auditory system. However, segmenting the acoustic radiation is challenging due to its small size and proximity to several larger fiber bundles. TractSeg is a method that uses a neural network to segment some of the major fiber bundles in the brain. This study aims to train TractSeg to segment the core of acoustic radiation.MethodsWe propose a methodology to automatically extract the acoustic radiation from human connectome data, which is both of high quality and high resolution. The segmentation masks generated by TractSeg of nearby fiber bundles are used to steer the generation of valid streamlines through tractography. Only streamlines connecting the Heschl's gyrus and the medial geniculate nucleus were considered. These streamlines are then used to create masks of the core of the acoustic radiation that is used to train the neural network of TractSeg. The trained network is used to automatically segment the acoustic radiation from unseen images.ResultsThe trained neural network successfully extracted anatomically plausible masks of the core of the acoustic radiation in human connectome data. We also applied the method to a dataset of 17 patients with unilateral congenital ear canal atresia and 17 age- and gender-paired controls acquired in a clinical setting. The method was able to extract 53/68 acoustic radiation in the dataset acquired with clinical settings. In 14/68 cases, the method generated fragments of the acoustic radiation and completely failed in a single case. The performance of the method on patients and controls was similar.DiscussionIn most cases, it is possible to segment the core of the acoustic radiations even in images acquired with clinical settings in a few seconds using a pre-trained neural network.
Association between red blood cell distribution width to albumin ratio and prognosis of patients with sepsis: A retrospective cohort study
Authors: Xu Weigan , Huo Jianyang , Chen Guojun , Yang Kangyi , Huang Zuhua , Peng Lina , Xu Jingtao , Jiang Jun 
Published: September 2022

BackgroundRed blood cell distribution width (RDW) to albumin ratio (RAR) is associated with poor prognosis in diabetic comorbidities and cancer. However, the association between RAR and prognosis in patients with sepsis remains unclear, which was investigated in this study.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study based on the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) IV version 2.0 database. The primary outcome of this study was 28-day mortality. Secondary outcomes included 90-day mortality, in-hospital mortality, length of hospital stay, and length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay. Multivariate regression analysis and subgroup analysis were performed to investigate the association between RAR and prognosis in patients with sepsis.ResultsA total of 14,639 participants were included in this study. The mean age of the participants was 65.2 ± 16.3 years and the mean RAR was 5.5 ± 1.9 % /g/dl. For 28-day mortality, after adjusting for covariates, HRs [95% confidence intervals (CIs)] for tertiles 2 (4.4–5.8) and 3 (RAR &gt; 5.8) were 1.33 (1.20, 1.46) and 1.98 (1.79, 2.19), respectively. Similar results were observed for 90-day mortality and in-hospital mortality. According to Kaplan-Meier curve analysis, the higher RAR group had higher 28-day mortality and 90-day mortality.ConclusionOur study shows that RAR is significantly associated with poor clinical prognosis in sepsis. The higher the RAR, the higher the 28-day, 90-day, and in-hospital mortality.
Vegetarian Diet Was Associated With a Lower Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease in Diabetic Patients
Authors: Hou Yi-Chou , Huang Hui-Fen , Tsai Wen-Hsin , Huang Sin-Yi , Liu Hao-Wen , Liu Jia-Sin , Kuo Ko-Lin 
Published: September 2022

IntroductionDiabetes mellitus (DM) is a pathological hyperglycemic state related to the dysregulation of insulin. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common chronic complication in diabetic patients. A vegetarian diet could be one of the preventive strategies for the occurrence of CKD in patients with diabetes mellitus. However, it is still unknown whether a vegetarian diet lowers the occurrence of CKD in DM patients.Research Design and MethodsThis retrospective study was conducted at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital from 5 September 2005 to 31 December 2016. Subjects with an HbA1c level &gt; 6.5% or previous history of diabetes mellitus elder than 40 years were grouped based on self-reported dietary habits (vegetarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians and omnivores) in the structured questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to estimate the direct and indirect effects of variables on the occurrence of chronic kidney disease.ResultsAmong these 2,797 subjects, the participants were grouped into dietary habits as vegans (n = 207), lacto-ovo vegetarians (n = 941) and omnivores (n = 1,649). The incidence of overall CKD was higher in the omnivore group [36.6% vs 30.4% (vegans) and 28.5% (lacto-ovo vegetarian), p &lt; 0.001]. In the SEM model, after adjusting for age and sex, the lacto-ovo vegetarian [OR: 0.68, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.57–0.82] and vegan groups (OR 0.68, 95% CI: 0.49–0.94) were both associated with a lower risk of CKD occurrence than the omnivore group. The vegan diet and lacto-ovo diet lowered the risk related to a high BMI (OR: 0.45, p &lt; 0.001, OR: 0.58, p &lt; 0.001) and hyperuricemia (OR: 0.53, p &lt; 0.001; OR: 0.55, p &lt; 0.001) for the occurrence of CKD.ConclusionVegetarian dietary habits were associated with a lower occurrence of CKD in DM patients.