Nevin Manimala

Arch Public Health. 2022 Jul 6;80(1):163. doi: 10.1186/s13690-022-00922-2.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Appropriate contraceptive use prevents unintended pregnancy, protects the health of mother and child, and promotes women’s well-being. Use of modern Family planning in Ethiopia was still very low. The purpose of this study was to assess the factors that are associated with non-use of modern family planning services among women of reproductive age.

METHOD: A nationally representative 2016 EDHS women data were used for analysis. A total of 15,683 women in the reproductive age group were included in this study. Descriptive and multilevel multivariable binary logistic regression models were used to summarize descriptive data and measure statistical association between the dependent and the individual and community level variable, respectively. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) and confidence interval were respectively used to measure association and its statistical significance.

RESULT: Among women in the reproductive age group 79.49% (95% CI: 78.85%, 80.12%) did not use a modern contraceptive method. Women age between 25-34 years (AOR = 0.54, 95% CI: 0.47-0.61) and age between 34-49 year (AOR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.55-0.71), having primary educated women (AOR = 0.0.77, 95% CI: 0.68-0.87),secondary and above educational (AOR = 0.88, CI: 0.75-1.03), Secondary and above-educated husband (AOR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.72-0.96), rich women (AOR = 0.74,95%CI:0.65-0.85), health facility delivery (AOR = 0.84, 95%CI: 0.73-0.0.98), being watching TV (AOR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.65-0.85), having 1-2 living children (AOR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.19-0.23) are less likely to not use contraception were identified. Furthermore, Muslim women (AOR = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.23-1.62), women living in rural area (AOR = 3.43; 95% CI: 2.72-4.32), and ANC visit 1.25(1.07-1.47) were more likely to not use contraception. Further, Women in Afar, Somali, Gambela, Harari, and Dire Dawa were less likely to use modern contraception methods than women in Tigray, but Amhara region had a lower rate of non-use.

CONCLUSION: Family planning interventions should target younger women, women living in rural areas, the poor, and Muslim women. Moreover, initiatives to empower women associated to family planning programs would be beneficial in increasing contraceptive uptake among sexually active women in Ethiopia.

PMID:35794637 | DOI:10.1186/s13690-022-00922-2

J Cardiothorac Surg. 2022 Jul 6;17(1):169. doi: 10.1186/s13019-022-01924-5.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) is a fatal disease and requires emergency surgery. In particular, it is known that mortality is high when a coronary artery is involved. However, the degree of myocardial damage of the coronary acute artery involvement (ACI) varies and may or may not increase creatine kinase muscle and brain isoenzyme (CK-MB). It is unknown how CK-MB elevation affects the surgical outcome. This study compared the surgical results between the two groups of ACI with or without CK-MB elevation.

METHODS: Among 348 patients who underwent an emergency operation for acute type A aortic dissection, there were 28 (8.0%) patients complicated by ACI and underwent additional coronary artery bypass grafting. We divided 26 of those patients into two groups; the MI group ( with CK-MB elevation) and the NMI group (without CK-MB elevation), and compared both groups.

RESULTS: Of the 26, sixteen were in the MI group, and ten were in the NMI group. The average CK-MB in the MI group was 225.5 IU/L, and that in the NMI group was 13.5 IU/L. The mean time from onset to surgery was 248 min in the MI group and 250 min in the NMI group. There was statistical significance in mortality ( 69% vs. 13%, p = 0.03). There was no significance in major complications (ICU days, reintubation, reoperation, pneumonia, sepsis).

CONCLUSIONS: Acute coronary artery involvement was associated with 8.0% of patients with ATAAD, and 62% had myocardial ischemia with CK-MB elevation. The MI group had significantly higher mortality than the NMI group. It is crucial for cases with suspected ACI to obtain coronary perfusion as soon as possible to prevent CK-MB from elevating.

PMID:35794624 | DOI:10.1186/s13019-022-01924-5

J Transl Med. 2022 Jul 6;20(1):308. doi: 10.1186/s12967-022-03508-2.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Tumour-derived exosomes have recently been shown to participate in the formation and progression of different cancer processes, including tumour microenvironment remodelling, angiogenesis, invasion, metastasis, and drug resistance. However, the function and mechanism of exosome-encapsulated nucleic acids and proteins in bladder cancer remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of tumour-derived exosomes on the tumorigenesis and development of bladder cancer.

METHODS: In this study, gene expression profiles and clinical information were collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and two independent Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. The nucleic acids and proteins encapsulated in bladder cancer-derived exosomes were obtained from the ExoCarta database. Based on these databases, the expression patterns of exosomal mRNAs and proteins and the matched clinicopathological characteristics were analysed. Furthermore, we carried out a series of experiments to verify the relevant findings.

RESULTS: A total of 7280 differentially expressed mRNAs were found in TCGA data, of which 52 mRNAs were shown to be encapsulated in bladder cancer-derived exosomes. Survival analysis based on the UALCAN database showed that among the top 10 upregulated and the top 10 downregulated exosomal genes, only the expression of KRT6B had a statistically significant effect on the survival of bladder cancer patients. Additionally, clinical correlation analysis showed that the elevated level of KRT6B was highly associated with bladder cancer stage, grade, and metastasis status. GSEA revealed that KRT6B was involved not only in epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related pathways but also in the immune response in bladder cancer. Ultimately, our experimental results were also consistent with the bioinformatic analysis.

CONCLUSION: KRT6B, which can be detected in bladder cancer-derived exosomes, plays an important role in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and immune responses in bladder cancer. Further research will enable its potentially prognostic marker and therapeutic target for bladder cancer.

PMID:35794606 | DOI:10.1186/s12967-022-03508-2

Environ Health. 2022 Jul 6;21(1):63. doi: 10.1186/s12940-022-00871-x.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Evidence of the role of interactions between air pollution and pollen exposure in subjects with allergic asthma is limited and need further exploration to promote adequate preventive measures. The objective of this study was to assess effects of exposure to ambient air pollution and birch pollen on exacerbation of respiratory symptoms in subjects with asthma and allergy to birch.

METHODS: Thirty-seven subjects from two Swedish cities (Gothenburg and Umeå) with large variation in exposure to both birch-pollen and air pollutants, participated in the study. All subjects had confirmed allergy to birch and self-reported physician-diagnosed asthma. The subjects recorded respiratory symptoms such as rhinitis or eye irritation, dry cough, dyspnoea, the use of any asthma or allergy medication and peak respiratory flow (PEF), daily for five consecutive weeks during two separate pollen seasons and a control season without pollen. Nitrogen oxides (NO_x), ozone (O₃), particulate matter (PM_2.5), birch pollen counts, and meteorological data were obtained from an urban background monitoring stations in the study city centres. The data were analysed using linear mixed effects models.

RESULTS: During pollen seasons all symptoms and medication use were higher, and PEF was reduced in the subjects. In regression analysis, exposure to pollen at lags 0 to 2 days, and lags 0 to 6 days was associated with increased ORs of symptoms and decreased RRs for PEF. Pollen and air pollution interacted in some cases; during low pollen exposure, there were no associations between air pollution and symptoms, but during high pollen exposure, O₃ concentrations were associated with increased OR of rhinitis or eye irritation, and PM_2.5 concentrations were associated with increased ORs of rhinitis or eye irritation, dyspnea and increased use of allergy medication.

CONCLUSIONS: Pollen and air pollutants interacted to increase the effect of air pollution on respiratory symptoms in allergic asthma. Implementing the results from this study, advisories for individuals with allergic asthma could be improved, minimizing the morbidities associated with the condition.

PMID:35794604 | DOI:10.1186/s12940-022-00871-x

World J Surg Oncol. 2022 Jul 6;20(1):225. doi: 10.1186/s12957-022-02646-7.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The important role that the immune system plays in malignant diseases is well known. The action of interleukin-7 (IL-7) as a cytokine has been observed in many cellular processes, both in normal cells of the immune system and in some cancer cells. The aim of this study has been to explore whether there is any elevation of interleukin-7 serum levels in early invasive breast cancer (EIBC) patients in comparison with healthy controls. In addition, the correlation between the IL-7 serum level and the histopathological characteristics of the tumor has been evaluated.

METHODS: This cross-sectional, observational, and analytical study included 213 consecutive patients with EIBC (113 from Croatia and 100 from Kosovo) and 62 healthy participants as the control group (30 from Croatia and 32 from Kosovo). Blood samples have been taken from patients confirmed with breast cancer (BC) by biopsy, prior to surgical intervention and other oncological treatments, as well as from healthy participants. A serum IL-7 level has been measured, using the “Sandwich” ELISA Immunoenzyme test. In addition, after the surgical intervention, histopathological specimen examinations and immunohistochemistry have been performed and analyzed. The differences in the distribution of the numerical variables have been analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA test. Correlations have been tested with Pearson coefficients. A P-value < 0.05 has been accepted as statistically significant.

RESULTS: The serum level of IL-7 in EIBC patients was significantly higher than in control cases (P 0.001). Patients with invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) seem to have a lower IL-7 serum level compared to other histological subtypes, and the difference has been significant (P = 0.043). There has been no correlation between IL-7 serum level and histopathological characteristics of the tumor, with neither age nor menopausal status of the patients.

CONCLUSIONS: Noting the significant increase in the IL-7 serum level in the EIBC patients as compared to the healthy control group, the use of IL-7 as a potential diagnostic indicator for BC, as well as in the follow-up of the patients after treatment, can be assumed. The lack of correlation with tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and all other histopathological characteristics of the tumor questions its use as a prognostic indicator.

PMID:35794603 | DOI:10.1186/s12957-022-02646-7

BMC Biol. 2022 Jul 6;20(1):155. doi: 10.1186/s12915-022-01363-7.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: According to Waddington’s epigenetic landscape concept, the differentiation process can be illustrated by a cell akin to a ball rolling down from the top of a hill (proliferation state) and crossing furrows before stopping in basins or “attractor states” to reach its stable differentiated state. However, it is now clear that some committed cells can retain a certain degree of plasticity and reacquire phenotypical characteristics of a more pluripotent cell state. In line with this dynamic model, we have previously shown that differentiating cells (chicken erythrocytic progenitors (T2EC)) retain for 24 h the ability to self-renew when transferred back in self-renewal conditions. Despite those intriguing and promising results, the underlying molecular state of those “reverting” cells remains unexplored. The aim of the present study was therefore to molecularly characterize the T2EC reversion process by combining advanced statistical tools to make the most of single-cell transcriptomic data. For this purpose, T2EC, initially maintained in a self-renewal medium (0H), were induced to differentiate for 24H (24H differentiating cells); then, a part of these cells was transferred back to the self-renewal medium (48H reverting cells) and the other part was maintained in the differentiation medium for another 24H (48H differentiating cells). For each time point, cell transcriptomes were generated using scRT-qPCR and scRNAseq.

RESULTS: Our results showed a strong overlap between 0H and 48H reverting cells when applying dimensional reduction. Moreover, the statistical comparison of cell distributions and differential expression analysis indicated no significant differences between these two cell groups. Interestingly, gene pattern distributions highlighted that, while 48H reverting cells have gene expression pattern more similar to 0H cells, they are not completely identical, which suggest that for some genes a longer delay may be required for the cells to fully recover. Finally, sparse PLS (sparse partial least square) analysis showed that only the expression of 3 genes discriminates 48H reverting and 0H cells.

CONCLUSIONS: Altogether, we show that reverting cells return to an earlier molecular state almost identical to undifferentiated cells and demonstrate a previously undocumented physiological and molecular plasticity during the differentiation process, which most likely results from the dynamic behavior of the underlying molecular network.

PMID:35794592 | DOI:10.1186/s12915-022-01363-7

BMC Cancer. 2022 Jul 6;22(1):739. doi: 10.1186/s12885-022-09832-6.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to explore the application value of random survival forest (RSF) model and Cox model in predicting the progression-free survival (PFS) among patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LANPC) after induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy (IC + CCRT).

METHODS: Eligible LANPC patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan before treatment were subjected to radiomics feature extraction. Radiomics and clinical features of patients in the training cohort were subjected to RSF analysis to predict PFS and were tested in the testing cohort. The performance of an RSF model with clinical and radiologic predictors was assessed with the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) and Delong test and compared with Cox models based on clinical and radiologic parameters. Further, the Kaplan-Meier method was used for risk stratification of patients.

RESULTS: A total of 294 LANPC patients (206 in the training cohort; 88 in the testing cohort) were enrolled and underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans before treatment. The AUC value of the clinical Cox model, radiomics Cox model, clinical + radiomics Cox model, and clinical + radiomics RSF model in predicting 3- and 5-year PFS for LANPC patients was [0.545 vs 0.648 vs 0.648 vs 0.899 (training cohort), and 0.566 vs 0.736 vs 0.730 vs 0.861 (testing cohort); 0.556 vs 0.604 vs 0.611 vs 0.897 (training cohort), and 0.591 vs 0.661 vs 0.676 vs 0.847 (testing cohort), respectively]. Delong test showed that the RSF model and the other three Cox models were statistically significant, and the RSF model markedly improved prediction performance (P < 0.001). Additionally, the PFS of the high-risk group was lower than that of the low-risk group in the RSF model (P < 0.001), while comparable in the Cox model (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: The RSF model may be a potential tool for prognostic prediction and risk stratification of LANPC patients.

PMID:35794590 | DOI:10.1186/s12885-022-09832-6

J Orthop Surg Res. 2022 Jul 6;17(1):341. doi: 10.1186/s13018-022-03231-0.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Medial opening wedge high tibial osteotomy (MOWHTO) is a mainstream surgical method for treating early medial compartment knee osteoarthritis. Undesirable sequelae such as patella infera may happen following tuberosity osteotomy. We conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis to compare the change in patellar position after proximal tibial tubercle osteotomy (PTO) versus distal tibial tubercle osteotomy (DTO) intervention.

METHODS: The 11 studies were acquired from PubMed, Medline, Embase and Cochrane Library. The data were extracted by two of the coauthors independently and were analyzed by RevMan5.3. Mean differences, odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Cochrane Collaboration’s Risk of Bias Tool and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale were used to assess risk of bias.

RESULTS: Eleven observational studies were assessed. The methodological quality of the trials ranged from moderate to high. The pooled results of postoperative patellar height (Caton-Deschamps index and Blackburne-Peel index) and postoperative complications showed that the differences were statistically significant between PTO and DTO interventions. Patellar index ratios decreased significantly in the PTO groups, and 12 (9.2%) complications under DTO surgery and 2 (1.6%) complications under PTO surgery were reported. The differences of postoperative posterior tibial slope (angle) was not statistically significant, but postoperative posterior tibial slope of both groups increased. Sensitivity analysis proved the stability of the pooled results and the publication bias was not apparent.

CONCLUSIONS: DTO in MOWHTO maintained the postoperative patellar height, and clinically, for patients with serious patellofemoral osteoarthritis, DTO can be preferred. Postoperative complications are easily preventable with caution. In view of the heterogeneity and small sample size, whether these conclusions are applicable should be further determined in future studies.

PMID:35794572 | DOI:10.1186/s13018-022-03231-0

Angle Orthod. 2022 Jul 6. doi: 10.2319/012822-85.1. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To assess and compare the three-dimensional treatment changes in palatal surface area and volume using either tooth-borne (TB) or tooth bone-borne (TBB) rapid maxillary expanders and to evaluate the long-term effects of the two devices and the incidence of the relapse between the groups.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 52 consecutive patients who met the eligibility criteria were recruited and allocated to either the TB group, mean age 9.3 years (standard deviation [SD], 1.3), or the TBB group, mean age 9.5 years (SD, 1.2). Study casts were taken before, directly after, 1 year after, and 5 years after expansion. Study casts were digitized, superimposed, and evaluated. Participants were randomly allocated in blocks of different sizes using the concealed allocation principle in a 1:1 ratio.

RESULTS: Changes in palatal volume, palatal surface area, and palatal projection area within and between the groups up to 5 years after expansion followed the same pattern and did not show any statistically significant differences between the groups. Relapse was seen in 15% of the patients. It seemed that open-bite and a Class III growth pattern could be assumed as prognosis-deteriorating factors in regard to stability of the treatment.

CONCLUSIONS: There were no significant differences between the TB and TBB groups in palatal volume, palatal shell area, or palatal projection area directly after expansion or at 1 year and 5 years after expansion, which implies that the two devices gave rise to the same immediate and long-term outcomes.

PMID:35793528 | DOI:10.2319/012822-85.1

J Comput Biol. 2022 Jul 6. doi: 10.1089/cmb.2021.0652. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Unsupervised cell clustering on the basis of meaningful biological variation in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA seq) data has received significant attention, as it assists with ontological subpopulation identification among the data. A key step in the clustering process is to compute distances between the cells under a specified distance measure. Although particular distance measures may successfully separate cells into biologically relevant clusters, they may fail to retain global structure of the data, such as relative similarity between the cell clusters. In this article, we modify a biologically motivated distance measure, SIDEseq, for use of aggregate comparisons of cell types in large single-cell assays, and demonstrate that, across simulated and real scRNA seq data, the distance matrix more consistently retains global cell type relationships than commonly used distance measures for scRNA seq clustering. We call the modified distance measure “SIDEREF.” We explore spectral dimension reduction of the SIDEREF distance matrix as a means of noise filtering, similar to principal components analysis applied directly to expression data. We utilize a summary measure of relative cell type distances to better display the cell group relationships. SIDEREF visualizations more consistently reflect global structures in the data than other commonly considered distance measures. We utilize relative cell type distances and the SIDEREF distance measure to uncover compositional differences between annotated leukocyte cell groups in a compendium of Mus musculus scRNA seq assays comprising 12 tissues. SIDEREF and associated analysis is openly available on GitHub.

PMID:35793527 | DOI:10.1089/cmb.2021.0652