Tag: pubmed

Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2021 Jun 22;54:103092. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2021.103092. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The management of multiple sclerosis (MS) has progressed significantly with the emergence of mHealth technologies. Uptake of mHealth apps amongst people with MS, and clinical and demographic characteristics of mHealth adopters is unknown outside North America. Participants of the HOLISM study were queried about their mHealth apps use. We summarize mHealth app usage, and clinical and demographic characteristics of mHealth app adopters using descriptive statistics. Overall, 3.1% of respondents reported using an mHealth app, most of whom were located in Australasia and North America. This study provides insight regarding mHealth app usage within a large international cohort of people with MS.

PMID:34246024 | DOI:10.1016/j.msard.2021.103092

BJU Int. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1111/bju.15540. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: To minimize stent-related symptoms (SRS), a modified complete intra-ureteral stent with extraction suture was designed. The objective was to compare SRS of the conventional DJ stent and the complete intraureteral stent using the validated Ureteral Stent Symptom Questionnaire (USSQ).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We randomized 124 patients after uncomplicated ureteroscopic lithotripsy into complete intraureteral stent (CIUS) and conventional DJ stent (CUS) placement group. The USSQ scores were evaluated on postoperative day 1, day 7 (just before stent removal) and 4 weeks after stent removal (control values). Pain scores after stent removal were also recorded using visual analogue scale (VAS). Sub-domain analysis of all stent related symptoms and stent related complications were also compared.

RESULTS: No significant intergroup differences were found in the domain scores of urinary symptoms (P = 0.74), pain (P = 0.32), general health (P = 0.27), work (P = 0.24), or additional problems (P = 0.29). However, statistically significant difference was noted on VAS scores (P = 0.015). Analysis of sub-domains of USSQ item scores revealed the CIUS group had significantly better scores for ”urge incontinence” (1.21 vs. 1.00; p = <0.001), ”discomfort on voiding” (2.07 vs. 1.50; p = <0.001), ”difficulties with respect to light physical activity” (1.131 vs. 1.00; p = <0.001), ”fatigue” (1.84 vs. 1.57; p = 0.002), “feeling comfortable” (3.68 vs. 3.16; p = 0.003), ”need for extra help” (1.96 vs. 1.00; p = <0.001), and ”change in duration of work”(4.27 vs. 1.86; p = <0.001). However, the patients in the CIUS group were sexually inactive for the time till stent was indwelling (mean: 7.34 days). There was no difference in the complication rate between the 2 groups.

CONCLUSION: The use of complete intra ureteral stent placement with strings after URS decreases SRS.

PMID:34245667 | DOI:10.1111/bju.15540

Mol Ecol. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1111/mec.16071. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Humoral and cellular immune responses provide animals with major defenses against harmful pathogens. While it is often assumed that immune genes undergo rapid diversifying selection, this assumption has not been tested in many species. Moreover, it is likely that different classes of immune genes experience different levels of evolutionary constraint, resulting in varying selection patterns. We examined the evolutionary patterns for a set of 91 canonical immune genes of North American monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus), using as an outgroup the closely related soldier butterfly (D. eresimus). As a comparison to these immune genes, we selected a set of control genes that were paired with each immune for approximate size and genomic location. As a whole, these immune genes had a significant but modest reduction in Tajima’s D relative to paired-control genes, but otherwise did not show distinct patterns of population genetic variation or evolutionary rates. When further partitioning these immune genes into four functional classes (recognition, signaling, modulation, and effector), we found distinct differences among these groups. Relative to control genes, recognition genes exhibit increased non-synonymous diversity and divergence, suggesting reduced constraints on evolution, and supporting the notion that coevolution with pathogens results in diversifying selection. In contrast, signaling genes showed an opposite pattern of reduced diversity and divergence, suggesting evolutionary constraints and conservation. Modulator and effector genes showed no statistical differences from controls. These results are consistent with patterns found in immune genes in fruit flies and Pieris butterflies, suggesting that consistent selective pressures on different classes of immune genes broadly govern the evolution of innate immunity among insects.

PMID:34245613 | DOI:10.1111/mec.16071

Oral Dis. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1111/odi.13957. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To systematically review the prevalence of bacteraemia, triggered by dental intervention and home oral hygiene practices, in children. The network meta-analysis (NMA) quantitatively compared the risk of bacteraemia triggered by dental extractions and home and professional cleaning procedures.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Clinical trials with the outcome ‘bacteraemia in children’ were searched. The NMA was performed using the frequentist weighted least-squares approach comparing the odds ratios (OR) of different interventions.

RESULTS: Among 11 of 13 studies, dental treatment was performed under general anaesthesia. In 2,381 patients, bacteraemia occurred in 38.7-56% patients following single-tooth extractions, in 22-46% after manual toothbrushing (MTB), and in 26-78% after power toothbrushing (PTB). When MTB was set as the reference (OR 1), rubber cup polishing showed a slightly higher risk (OR 1.26) of bacteraemia. PTB presented a higher risk (OR 1.79-2.27) than with single-tooth extractions (OR 1.55) but lower than that with multiple extractions (OR 2.55).

CONCLUSION: Daily use of MTB and routine professional cleaning were associated with the lowest risk of developing bacteraemia in children with gingivitis, almost as much as with a single-tooth extractions. Improved plaque control with PTB increased the risk of bacteraemia. There is limited evidence on gingivitis-free and systemically-diseased children.

PMID:34245644 | DOI:10.1111/odi.13957

Int Endod J. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1111/iej.13597. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIM: This prospective clinical study evaluated the clinical performance of managing cracked teeth with reversible pulpitis through a combination of internal and external splinting and investigated factors that can affect pulp survival after splinting.

METHODOLOGY: Thirty-four teeth diagnosed with cracks and reversible pulpitis were enrolled and treated with bidirectional crack splinting: 1) immediate splinting with a stainless-steel band; 2) internal splinting with crack line removal and resin filling; and 3) external splinting with a temporary crown followed by final crown setting. If the symptoms remained/recurred, root canal treatment was performed. Patients were followed up at 3, 6, and 12 months, then annually thereafter. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis to calculate the survival of the treated teeth and Cox univariate proportional hazards regression model to investigate prognostic factors were performed.

RESULTS: Twenty-nine (97%) teeth were followed up for up to 4 years. The pulp survival rate was 72% after banding and 91% after final crown cementation. No tooth was extracted (100% tooth survival rate). In the univariate Cox proportional hazard test, pain on percussion was the only statistically significant factor (hazard ratio = 11.77). Teeth with pain on percussion at the first visit had a pulp survival rate of 46% during the follow-up period. In comparison, their counterparts without pain had a 94% pulp survival rate.

CONCLUSIONS: Bidirectional splinting successfully managed cracked teeth with reversible pulpitis. Pain on percussion (mechanical allodynia) may be an important factor in deciding whether to attempt root canal treatment on symptomatic cracked teeth. A step-by-step approach with bidirectional crack splinting should be encouraged for a cracked tooth with a vital pulp without mechanical allodynia rather than preemptive root canal treatment.

PMID:34245604 | DOI:10.1111/iej.13597

J Neurosci Res. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1002/jnr.24912. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

In athletes, long-term intensive training has been shown to increase unparalleled athletic ability and might induce brain plasticity. We evaluated the structural connectome of world-class gymnasts (WCGs), as mapped by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging probabilistic tractography and a multishell, multitissue constrained spherical deconvolution method to increase the precision of tractography at the tissue interfaces. The connectome was mapped in 10 Japanese male WCGs and in 10 age-matched male controls. Network-based statistic identified subnetworks with increased connectivity density in WCGs, involving the sensorimotor, default mode, attentional, visual, and limbic areas. It also revealed a significant association between the structural connectivity of some brain structures with functions closely related to the gymnastic skills and the D-score, which is used as an index of the gymnasts’ specific physical abilities for each apparatus. Furthermore, graph theory analysis demonstrated the characteristics of brain anatomical topology in the WCGs. They displayed significantly increased global connectivity strength with decreased characteristic path length at the global level and higher nodal strength and degree in the sensorimotor, default mode, attention, and limbic/subcortical areas at the local level as compared with controls. Together, these findings extend the current understanding of neural mechanisms that distinguish WCGs from controls and suggest brain anatomical network plasticity in WCGs resulting from long-term intensive training. Future studies should assess the contribution of genetic or early-life environmental factors in the brain network organization of WCGs. Furthermore, the indices of brain topology (i.e., connection density and graph theory indices) could become markers for the objective evaluation of gymnastic performance.

PMID:34245603 | DOI:10.1002/jnr.24912

Cent Eur J Public Health. 2021 Jun;29(2):159-161. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a6963.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to determine the probable places of coronavirus transmission in association with the work.

METHODS: The work analysed data from the Information System of Infectious Diseases managed by the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic in the period March-December 2020.

RESULTS: 732,202 COVID-19 cases were officially confirmed, from them 64,587 (9%) represented work-related disease, 184,384 cases (25%) work-related contact, and 483,231 cases (66%) out-of-work contact. There were identified 13 occupations with the highest incidence of COVID-19 in the observed period (22,515 cases), in descending order nurse, paramedic, teacher, machinist, clerk, social worker, physician, worker/agency worker, craftsman, policeman, manager, food worker, and miner; 150 cases of COVID-19 were recognized as an occupational disease in 2020, from them 148 cases in the health and social care economic activity sector.

CONCLUSION: The available data show probable exposures to an infectious agent (without proof of specific contact with the source of the infection), of which at least one third are related to work, so different relevant anti-epidemic measures in the workplace have considerable practical importance for epidemic control.

PMID:34245557 | DOI:10.21101/cejph.a6963

Genet Epidemiol. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1002/gepi.22424. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Recently polygenetic risk score (PRS) has been successfully used in the risk prediction of complex human diseases. Many studies incorporated internal information, such as effect size distribution, or external information, such as linkage disequilibrium, functional annotation, and pleiotropy among multiple diseases, to optimize the performance of PRS. To leverage on multiomics datasets, we developed a novel flexible transcriptional risk score (TRS), in which messenger RNA expression levels were imputed and weighted for risk prediction. In simulation studies, we demonstrated that single-tissue TRS has greater prediction power than LDpred, especially when there is a large effect of gene expression on the phenotype. Multitissue TRS improves prediction accuracy when there are multiple tissues with independent contributions to disease risk. We applied our method to complex traits, including Crohn’s disease, type 2 diabetes, and so on. The single-tissue TRS method outperformed LDpred and AnnoPred across the tested traits. The performance of multitissue TRS is trait-dependent. Moreover, our method can easily incorporate information from epigenomic and proteomic data upon the availability of reference datasets.

PMID:34245595 | DOI:10.1002/gepi.22424

Neurourol Urodyn. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1002/nau.24743. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: The cellular functions of bladder urothelial cells in interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) have not been well revealed and understood. Thus, the study aims to identify key genes and significant pathways in urothelium corresponding to IC/BPS in a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cystitis model and provide novel clues related to diagnosis and treatment of IC/BPS.

METHODS: Human urothelial cells (HUCs) were incubated with LPS (50 μg/ml for 24 h). Microarray was applied to analyze the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between HUCs under LPS treatment and the control group. DEGs in the two groups were identified and then used for enrichment analysis. Subsequently, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network based on DEGs was constructed. Lastly, the top five key genes were identified through the Cytoscape (version 3.7.2) using the “Clustering Coefficient” algorithm.

RESULTS: One hundred and seventy-one DEGs (96 upregulated genes and 75 downregulated genes) were identified between the LPS treatment and control group. The established PPI network was composed of 169 nodes and 678 edges. Moreover, C19orf33, TRIM31, MUC21, ELF3, and IFI27 were identified as hub genes in the PPI network. Subsequently, a statistically increased expression level of TRIM31 and ELF3 was validated by real-time quantitative-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry in bladder tissues from 20 patients with IC/BPS.

CONCLUSIONS: TRIM31 and ELF3 may be the two hub genes in urothelium corresponding to IC/BPS. More studies are warranted to further validate the findings. The identified marker genes may be useful targets for further studies to develop diagnostic tools and more effective therapies for a broader group of women with IC/PBS.

PMID:34245600 | DOI:10.1002/nau.24743

Cent Eur J Public Health. 2021 Jun;29(2):83-89. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a5922.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Globally, child mortality from external causes is in decline, but it is still among the leading causes of child deaths. The aim of this first national study was to determine trends of mortality rates from external causes among children aged 1-14 years in Serbia.

METHODS: Mortality data were collected from the database of the Statistical Office of Serbia. Joinpoint analysis was used to assess the average annual percentage change (APC) and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) in mortality from 1997 to 2016.

RESULTS: In the 1997-2016 period, there were 1,388 child deaths from external causes. They contributed to 29.4% of child mortality in total, from 34.8% in 1997 to 21.8% in 2016. Mortality rate was two times higher among boys (8.1 per 100,000) than girls (4.1 per 100,000). Transport accidents (37.6%), followed by drowning and submersion (18.2%), represented more than half of all deaths due to external causes. Since 1997, mortality rate showed a significant downward trend in boys by -5.4% (95% CI -6.8 to -3.9) yearly for unintentional injuries and significantly by -10% (95% CI -19.0 to 0.1) yearly for intentional injuries. Among girls, death rate for unintentional injuries decreased significantly by -7.1% (95% CI -9.0 to -5.1) yearly and decreased insignificantly for intentional injuries by -2.1% (95% CI -15.3 to 13.1) yearly.

CONCLUSIONS: The external causes of death, despite the substantial decline in mortality, are still present among children aged 1-14 years in Serbia. Therefore, implementation of nationwide programmes for prevention of external causes of death is urgent.

PMID:34245546 | DOI:10.21101/cejph.a5922