Tag: pubmed

Indian J Clin Biochem. 2025 Oct;40(4):683-690. doi: 10.1007/s12291-024-01235-7. Epub 2024 May 25.

ABSTRACT

This study delves into the exploration of exosomal transfer RNA-derived fragments (tRFs) as potential diagnostic markers for cervical cancer (CC). Employing plasma-derived exosomes isolated through ultracentrifugation and confirmed via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), qNano, and western blot analysis, we extracted total RNA from CC and adjacent tissues (n = 48), alongside exosomes from cervical cancer patients (n = 140) and healthy donors (n = 140) using Trizol reagents. The expression of exosomal tRFs was assessed through quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and subjected to statistical analysis using Mann-Whitney U or t-tests, along with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The findings unveiled a significant downregulation of exosomal tRF-Phe-GAA-001 and tRF-Gly-GCC-037 in both CC tissues and plasma samples from early-stage patients compared to healthy controls. Remarkably, these two exosomal tRFs exhibited promising capabilities as circulating biomarkers for both the diagnosis and early detection of CC, as evidenced by their high area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.9337 and 0.9432, respectively. Consequently, exosomal tRF-Phe-GAA-001 and tRF-Gly-GCC-037 were downregulated in CC and early-stage CC, indicating their potential as innovative non-invasive biomarkers for early CC diagnosis.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12291-024-01235-7.

PMID:40937397 | PMC:PMC12420557 | DOI:10.1007/s12291-024-01235-7

J Biol Methods. 2025 Aug 20;12(3):e99010069. doi: 10.14440/jbm.2025.0002. eCollection 2025.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) has emerged as an effective surgical treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). This study evaluated how the adoption of HoLEP in a general urology clinic influenced clinical and procedural volume.

OBJECTIVE: To better understand the practice ramifications of HoLEP adoption, we analyzed the changes to a general urologist’s patient demographics and practice patterns after the addition of HoLEP to their surgical repertoire.

METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the electronic health records 30 months before and after the introduction of HoLEP to examine changes in a general urologist’s patient population. Pearson’s Chi-squared test and Student’s t-test were used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS: A total of 4390 unique patients were seen over a period of 5-years, with 2052 seen before and 2338 after the introduction of HoLEP. The mean distance from patients’ residence zip codes to the treatment center remained statistically unchanged (pre-HoLEP: 32.52 ± 152.42 miles, post-HoLEP: 29.65 ± 141.79 miles, p=0.9896). Among those who underwent HoLEP, prostate sizes were comparable between patients residing in the same county and those coming from different counties (96.42 ± 3.24 cc vs. 104.52 ± 4.34 cc, p=0.141). Surgical volume rose from 355 to 1018 cases with a concordant increase in other BPH-related surgeries, marked by an inflection point at the time of HoLEP’s introduction.

CONCLUSION: There was an increase in clinical and surgical volume to an established general urologist’s practice after HoLEP was offered. Most patients continued to be drawn from the initial catchment area, potentially reflecting previously unmet treatment needs for patients with large prostate glands.

PMID:40937374 | PMC:PMC12422107 | DOI:10.14440/jbm.2025.0002

Nurs Res Pract. 2025 Sep 3;2025:6934650. doi: 10.1155/nrp/6934650. eCollection 2025.

ABSTRACT

Background: Infertility is a reproductive disorder affecting either the male or female reproductive system, characterized by the inability to achieve pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular, unprotected sexual intercourse. It may result from male, female, or idiopathic factors, with certain etiologies being preventable. Management of infertility frequently involves assisted reproductive technologies, including in vitro fertilization (IVF). Objective: This quantitative cross-sectional study aimed to discover the traditional practices used for infertility treatment among females in Albaha City. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted with 251 infertile women between the ages of 50 or beneath who had primary or secondary infertility because of personal reasons or male infertility in the maternity outpatient departments of Albaha City hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The study period lasted from May 30, 2021, until January 2022. The research obtained approval from the Faculty of Nursing ethical committee at King Abdulaziz University Jeddah before participants granted their consent. Results: A total of 251 participants indicated that 51.0% found traditional infertility treatment successful and 45.8% had no previous knowledge about the approach, while 3.2% viewed it negatively. Among the participants, 39.5% revealed that they got pregnant after using traditional treatments, whereas 60.5% said they did not get pregnant. About 29.0% of women who got pregnant achieved it within 6 months and 11.0% of them conceived over 6 months to 1 year. Two-thirds of participants reported no side effects from traditional healing treatment, and half of the respondents planned to repeat their experience. The research conducted on pregnancy and herb consumption demonstrated a lack of statistical importance expressed through the data values (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Many participants believed in using traditional practices and visiting traditional healers instead of attending medical facilities and the care services provided by health professionals due to their actions on physiological systems and low cost. Further investigation is required to support the outcomes of this study.

PMID:40937363 | PMC:PMC12422851 | DOI:10.1155/nrp/6934650

Ther Adv Psychopharmacol. 2025 Sep 9;15:20451253251367591. doi: 10.1177/20451253251367591. eCollection 2025.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Poor adherence to antipsychotic medications is the leading cause of relapses and hospitalizations in patients with schizophrenia, resulting in worse functional outcomes and quality of life. Long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics are an effective therapeutic option to improve adherence, but they are often underutilized, particularly during inpatient care.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the predictive factors for LAI utilization among inpatients with schizophrenia and to assess whether initiating a LAI antipsychotic treatment during hospitalization reduces the risk of readmission.

DESIGN: Observational prospective study.

METHODS: Patients were evaluated at admission, discharge, and after 3 months. Two comparisons were performed: patients who initiated a LAI during the hospitalization versus those who continued with oral antipsychotics, and readmitted versus not-readmitted patients within 3 months. Factors statistically associated with LAI initiation or readmission were entered as independent variables in two backward logistic regression models, having “LAI initiation” and “rehospitalization at three months” as outcomes.

RESULTS: One hundred two patients were included. Twelve were lost at follow-up. Forty-two (44%) initiated an LAI during the admission. Subjects who received LAI were significantly younger, more educated, and less adherent to treatment. Thirty (33%) patients were readmitted within 3 months after discharge. Re-hospitalized subjects had more psychiatric hospitalizations in the past and a lower rate of LAI antipsychotic treatment initiation during the studied hospitalization: 5/39 (13%) patients prescribed a LAI antipsychotic were readmitted within 3 months, compared with 25/51 (49%) prescribed an oral antipsychotic medication (OR = 0.19; p = 0.002).

CONCLUSION: Introducing LAI antipsychotic treatment during a psychiatric hospitalization may reduce the risk of early readmissions, thus facilitating the improvement of the course of the illness and the patient’s quality of life.

PMID:40937358 | PMC:PMC12420969 | DOI:10.1177/20451253251367591

Jamba. 2025 Aug 29;17(1):1898. doi: 10.4102/jamba.v17i1.1898. eCollection 2025.

ABSTRACT

Noncompliance with locational guidelines for petrol station facilities in South Africa’s urban areas is widespread, posing significant disaster risks. Petrol stations store and handle flammable substances such as liquefied petroleum gas, hydrogen and biodiesel, making adherence to environmental impact assessment (EIA) safety parameters critical. This study evaluates the spatial distribution and compliance of petrol stations in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban with the 2002 EIA guidelines. Using a mixed-methods approach, geospatial mapping via Google Earth and ArcGIS alongside secondary qualitative analysis, the study assessed petrol station distances from sensitive land uses (residential, public institutions and critical infrastructure) and the spacing between petrol stations. The results reveal a significant degree of noncompliance with the EIA’s 100-m setback from sensitive uses and the 3-km minimum distance between petrol stations. In all three cities, petrol stations are often clustered within high-density urban cores, overlapping safety buffer zones and situated near residential and institutional structures. These spatial patterns indicate a regulatory gap in land-use enforcement and raise serious concerns about disaster preparedness and risk exposure in urban areas. The findings emphasise the urgent need to integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) into urban land-use planning. While the study acknowledges that existing noncompliant petrol stations cannot be retrofitted easily, it recommends embedding DRR into future siting policies and calls for emergency preparedness measures at high-risk sites.

CONTRIBUTION: The study’s spatially grounded analysis of EIA compliance across multiple cities in South Africa offers an evidence-based framework to guide future policy on hazardous facility siting in disaster-prone urban contexts.

PMID:40937353 | PMC:PMC12421480 | DOI:10.4102/jamba.v17i1.1898

China CDC Wkly. 2025 Sep 5;7(36):1168-1173. doi: 10.46234/ccdcw2025.196.

ABSTRACT

This study systematically evaluated the spatial distribution, health risks, and regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in global drinking water using the PubMed and Web of Science databases (January 1, 2000 to February 25, 2025). Among the 122 studies reviewed, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) received the greatest research attention (detected in 102 and 100 studies, respectively) and showed the highest detection rates (64.69% and 60.72%, respectively). Several other compounds, including perfluorooctane sulfonamide, perfluorobutanesulfonamide, and perfluoropropane sulfonate, also exhibited high detection rates but remain underregulated, underscoring the need for further research and regulatory oversight. The three countries with the highest concentrations of [Formula: see text] were the Republic of Korea, the United States, and China. Risk assessments indicated that perfluorohexanoic acid, perfluorobutanoic acid, and perfluorobutanesulfonic acid posed negligible health risks, while perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), PFOA, PFOS, and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) showed descending levels of health risk (PFHxS > PFOA > PFOS > PFNA). Regulatory approaches are shifting from compound-specific standards to integrated mixture-based frameworks, reinforced by progressively stringent limits.

PMID:40937346 | PMC:PMC12421654 | DOI:10.46234/ccdcw2025.196

J Multidiscip Healthc. 2025 Sep 5;18:5551-5561. doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S534760. eCollection 2025.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: A multitude of congenital and acquired conditions can result in short stature, each with distinctive clinical presentations and treatment options. We aimed to develop and validate a prediction model to identify GHD among children with short stature using clinical and laboratory parameters.

METHODS: This retrospective observational study included 1120 children with short stature from a hospital in China. The data were randomly split into a derivation set and a validation set. Features were selected based on clinical relevance and statistical significance to construct a multivariate logistic regression model in the derivation set. Discrimination, calibration, and prediction accuracy were evaluated on both sets.

RESULTS: Of the 1120 children, 278 (25%) were diagnosed with GHD, 694 (62%) were male, and the mean age was 6.97 ± 2.97 years. The derivation set comprises 785 (70%) children. The model incorporates four predictors: age (OR=0.761; 95% CI 0.660, 0.873), delayed bone age (OR=1.841; 95% CI 1.365, 2.537), IGF-1 SDS (OR=0.148; 95% CI 0.095, 0.220), and IGF-1/IGFBP-3 ratio (OR=0.901; 95% CI 0.870, 0.930). The model exhibits good discriminative ability, with an AUC of 0.952 (0.937, 0.967) in the derivation set and 0.950 (0.927, 0.973) in the validation set. Furthermore, it shows high accuracy with sensitivity and specificity of 0.895 in the derivation set, which was 0.946 and 0.851 in the validation set. The model also demonstrates reliable calibration.

CONCLUSION: We have developed a prediction model for accurate screening of GHD in children with short stature.

PMID:40937344 | PMC:PMC12420774 | DOI:10.2147/JMDH.S534760

J Am Stat Assoc. 2025 Apr 4. doi: 10.1080/01621459.2025.2460231. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Epidemiological approaches for examining human health responses to environmental exposures in observational studies often control for confounding by implementing clever matching schemes and using statistical methods based on conditional likelihood. Nonparametric regression models have surged in popularity in recent years as a tool for estimating individual-level heterogeneous effects, which provide a more detailed picture of the exposure-response relationship but can also be aggregated to obtain improved marginal estimates at the population level. In this work we incorporate Bayesian additive regression trees (BART) into the conditional logistic regression model to identify heterogeneous exposure effects in a case-crossover design. Conditional logistic BART (CL-BART) utilizes reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo to bypass the conditional conjugacy requirement of the original BART algorithm. Our work is motivated by the growing interest in identifying subpopulations more vulnerable to environmental exposures. We apply CL-BART to a study of the impact of heat waves on people with Alzheimer’s disease in California and effect modification by other chronic conditions. Through this application, we also describe strategies to examine heterogeneous odds ratios through variable importance, partial dependence, and lower-dimensional summaries.

PMID:40937338 | PMC:PMC12422705 | DOI:10.1080/01621459.2025.2460231

Environ Epigenet. 2025 Sep 4;11(1):dvaf021. doi: 10.1093/eep/dvaf021. eCollection 2025.

ABSTRACT

The increasing incidence of opioid use during pregnancy has led to a rise in the number of infants exposed to opioids in utero. Prenatal opioid exposure may have consequences for health and (neuro)development, including neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS). It is unknown which infants are at greatest risk for NOWS. DNA methylation (DNAm) is an epigenetic mark reflecting both allelic variation and environmental exposures, which may provide biomarkers for prenatal opioid exposure and infant NOWS. The placenta is an accessible, biologically relevant tissue in which to directly investigate the epigenetic effects of prenatal opioid exposure. Therefore, the aims of this study were to examine whether prenatal opioid exposure is associated with differential DNAm, including epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) in the placenta. We performed an epigenome-wide association study based on co-methylated regions and single CpG sites in placental samples from in utero opioid-exposed (n = 19) and nonexposed infants (n = 143), correcting for potential confounders. We did not identify statistically significant differential DNAm profiles, but the strongest associations were found for cg06621211; cg18688392 (ZMIZ1, adjusted P = .068) and cg04460738 (KCNMA1, adjusted P = .068), although effect sizes were very small. One of these DNAm patterns (cg06621211) was in part under control of genetic variants through methylation quantitative trait loci. The involved single nucleotide polymorphism did not show significant associations in recent genome-wide association studies for phenotypes related to substance use, and the finding was not driven by potential co-occurring substance use based on sensitivity analyses. There was also no association between placental EAA and in utero opioid exposure. In conclusion, placental DNAm showed limited associations with in utero opioid exposure and NOWS diagnosis.

PMID:40937335 | PMC:PMC12422002 | DOI:10.1093/eep/dvaf021

Clin Kidney J. 2025 Aug 13;18(9):sfaf263. doi: 10.1093/ckj/sfaf263. eCollection 2025 Sep.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Short calciprotein crystallization time (low T50) is directly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and mortality. Here, we investigated whether increases in dialysate bicarbonate concentrations increase T50 times in dialysis patients.

METHODS: In a prospective, single-center, single-arm, interventional trial in hemodialysis patients (N = 29), dialysate bicarbonate was decreased from baseline settings to 27 mmol/L (D-Bic 27) followed by an increase to 37 mmol/L (D-Bic 37), over the course of 6 weeks. The primary endpoint was the change in T50 time between the D-Bic 27 and D-Bic 37 phases. Measurements of endogenous calciprotein monomers (CPM), primary (CPP-1) and secondary (CPP-2) calciprotein particles were pre-specified secondary outcomes.

RESULTS: Twenty-four patients completed the study per protocol. T50 time increased significantly from 246 ± 77 to 282 ± 81 min from the D-Bic 27 to the D-Bic 37 phase (P < .0001). The hydrodynamic radius (size) of secondary calciprotein particles generated in the T50 test (CPP-2_Rh) did not differ significantly between study phases (251 ± 75 vs 240 ± 78 nm, P = .27). Comparing the D-Bic 27 with the D-Bic 37 phase, CPM (16.8 × 10³ vs 16.2 × 10³ AU/µL, P = .9) and CPP-1 (4.6 × 105 vs 4.5 × 10⁵ counts/mL, P = .7) did not change significantly, but there was a significant decrease in CPP-2 levels (5.9 × 10⁴ vs 3.2 × 10⁴ counts/mL, P < .0003). Intradialytically, T50 increased, CPM and CPP-1 decreased, while CPP-2 remained stable.

CONCLUSIONS: Raising dialysate bicarbonate resulted in a significant increase in T50 time and a reduction of CPP-2 levels.

PMID:40937333 | PMC:PMC12421725 | DOI:10.1093/ckj/sfaf263