Tag: pubmed

Neuropsychobiology. 2021 Jul 28:1-9. doi: 10.1159/000517859. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been employed worldwide for therapy-resistant depression. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a number of therapeutic devices for treating major depressive disorder; however, no studies have examined the differences in efficacy and acceptability among commercially available stimulation devices. The aim of our study was to compare the efficacy and acceptability of 3 stimulation devices (NeuroStar, MagPro, and Magstim) for depressive disorders.

METHODS: Our study included 31 randomized sham-controlled trials of high-frequency rTMS included in the network meta-analysis by Brunoni. We calculated the risk ratio and 95% confidence intervals, comparing each device with sham for the endpoints of response rate, remission rate, and all-cause discontinuation. We then analyzed the differences among the devices in effect size for those endpoints.

RESULTS: After determining the effect sizes for the endpoints, we found no statistically significant subgroup differences in the response rates, all-cause discontinuation, or remission rates among the devices (p = 0.12, p = 0.84, and p = 0.07, respectively).

CONCLUSION: Our results suggest similar efficacy and acceptability for the 3 stimulation devices. Future studies need to perform head-to-head comparisons of the efficacy and acceptability of the stimulation devices for treating depression using the same stimulation protocols.

PMID:34320488 | DOI:10.1159/000517859

Photodiagnosis Photodyn Ther. 2021 Jul 25:102439. doi: 10.1016/j.pdpdt.2021.102439. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACK GROUND: Vitiligo is an acquired autoimmune skin disorder with depigmented macules and patches. There are several possible treatments for vitiligo, none of which could be considered as a definitive cure. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a novel treatment with controversial outcomes in vitiligo patients.

MATERIALS & METHODS: A total of 10 patches (5 patches on the trunk, 3 on the extremities, and 2 on the neck) were selected and received microderm abrasion. Then the lesion was covered with 5- aminolevulinic acid (ALA) for one hour. Afterwards, it received red light with a dose of 120 J/cm².This cycle was repeated monthly for 5 sessions. Another vitiligo patch was considered as a control and received topical mometasone twice a day during the study. The therapeutic results were compared by a blind dermatologist.

RESULTS: The median of repigmentation score, which was determined by a blind dermatologist, was 0.5 in the PDT group and 1 in the steroid group, which did not show any statistically significant difference.

CONCLUSION: The results of this study demonstrated that PDT does not have any additional therapeutic effect in comparison with topical corticosteroids as the traditional treatment of vitiligo.

PMID:34320426 | DOI:10.1016/j.pdpdt.2021.102439

Photodiagnosis Photodyn Ther. 2021 Jul 25:102464. doi: 10.1016/j.pdpdt.2021.102464. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the curcumin-mediated antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) action combined or not with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and hydroxyethylidene bisphosphonate (HEBP) on Enterococcus faecalis biofilms.

METHODS: Enterococcus faecalis biofilms were grown on dentin bovine discs in brain heart infusion (BHI) medium with 1% glucose, in aerobic conditions at 37°C for 7 days. Then, they were randomly distributed to one of experimental conditions, as follows: control, 75 J.cm^-2 LED, 600 μmol.L^-1 curcumin, 17% EDTA, 18% HEBP, 600 μmol.L^-1 curcumin plus 75 J.cm^-2 LED, 600 μmol.L^-1 curcumin plus 17% EDTA, 600 μmol.L^-1 curcumin plus 18% HEBP, 600 μmol.L^-1 curcumin plus 17% EDTA and 75 J.cm^-2 LED or 600 μmol.L^-1 curcumin plus 18% HEBP and 75 J.cm^-2 LED. The viability of microorganisms and the vitality of biofilms were determined by colony forming unit counts and confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM), respectively. Statistical analysis was conducted by Kruskal Wallis and Dunn’s post-hoc tests (α = 0.05).

RESULTS: The results showed that all combinations of aPDT with chelators significantly reduced the viability of microbial cells and the vitality of biofilms in comparison to control, even when considering deeper layers of biofilms.

CONCLUSION: The combination of curcumin with EDTA and HEBP similarly improved the effect of aPDT on E. faecalis biofilms.

PMID:34320428 | DOI:10.1016/j.pdpdt.2021.102464

Transbound Emerg Dis. 2021 Jul 28. doi: 10.1111/tbed.14263. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Existing models about the dynamics of COVID-19 transmission often assume the mechanism of virus transmission and the form of the differential equations. These assumptions are hard to verify. Due to the biases of country-level data, it’s inaccurate to construct the global dynamic of COVID-19. This research aims to provide a robust data-driven global model of the transmission dynamics. We apply Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics (SINDy) to model the dynamics of COVID-19 global transmission. One advantage is that we can discover the nonlinear dynamics from data without assumptions in the form of the governing equations. To overcome the problem of biased country-level data on the number of reported cases, we propose a robust global model of the dynamics by using maximin aggregation. Real data analysis shows the efficiency of our model. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID:34320273 | DOI:10.1111/tbed.14263

N Engl J Med. 2021 Jul 28. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2110468. Online ahead of print.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:34320282 | DOI:10.1056/NEJMp2110468

J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2021 Jul 28. doi: 10.1111/jdv.17551. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), a chronic, recurrent, debilitating skin disease, is characterized by painful, inflammatory, subcutaneous lesions of the axilla, inguinal, and anogenital regions. Overall prevalence of HS is ~1%, and impact of disease on patient quality of life (QoL) and healthcare resource utilization (HRU) is high.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the real-world effectiveness of adalimumab (Humira^® ) treatment in patients with moderate to severe HS on disease severity, pain, QoL, work productivity, and HRU.

METHODS: HARMONY (Effectiveness of Adalimumab in Moderate to Severe HidrAdenitis SuppuRativa Patients – a Multi cOuNtry studY in Real Life Setting) is a multicenter, postmarketing observational study in adult patients with moderate to severe HS. Disease severity and QoL parameters were evaluated using validated measures at 12-week intervals over 52 weeks of treatment. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients achieving a Hidradenitis Suppurativa Clinical Response (HiSCR: ≥50% reduction in abscess and inflammatory nodule count, with no increase in abscess and draining fistula counts relative to baseline) at 12 weeks. Secondary endpoints were HiSCR at 24, 36, and 52 weeks and changes in QoL parameters and work productivity assessments. Analyses were conducted using as-observed data.

RESULTS: The proportion of patients reaching the primary HiSCR endpoint was 70.2% (n=132/188 enrolled) and remained ≥70% until study completion. There were statistically significant (P<0.0001) reductions in worst and average skin pain. All of the QoL measures evaluated improved significantly (P<0.0001) by 12 weeks of adalimumab treatment, as did work productivity assessments (P<0.05), and there was a ~50% decrease in HRU between baseline and week 52. Adalimumab was well tolerated.

CONCLUSIONS: In this real-world setting, adalimumab treatment of moderate to severe HS resulted in decreased disease severity and improvements in QoL and productivity. Response to adalimumab was rapid (within 12 weeks) and sustained (52 weeks). No unexpected safety signals were reported.

PMID:34320249 | DOI:10.1111/jdv.17551

Int J Clin Pract. 2021 Jul 28:e14653. doi: 10.1111/ijcp.14653. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The T.O.HO. scoring system was developed to predict stone-free status after flexible ureterenoscopy (fURS) lithotripsy applied for ureter and renal stones. This study aimed to perform the external validation of the T.O.HO. score in the Turkish population and propose a modification for this system.

MATERIAL METHODS: Patients who underwent fURS for kidney and ureteral stones between January 2017 and January 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The patient and stone characteristics and perioperative findings were noted. The T.O.HO. score was externally validated and compared with the STONE score. Stone-free parameters were evaluated with the multivariate analysis. Based on the results of this analysis, the T.O.HO. score was modified and internally validated.

RESULTS: A total of 621 patients were included in the study. The stone-free rate was determined as 79.8% (496/621) after fURS. The regression analysis showed that stone area had better predictive power than stone diameter (p=0.025). Lower pole (reference), middle pole [odds ratio (OR)=0.492 p=0.016] and middle ureteral (OR=0.227, p=0.024) localizations, stone density (OR=1.001, p<0.001), and stone volume (OR = 1.008, p <0.001) were determined as independent predictive markers for stone-free status. Based on the effect size of the stone surface area in the nomogram, stone volume was divided into five categories, at 1-point intervals. The AUC values of the T.O.HO., STONE, and modified T.O.HO. score in predicting stone-free status were calculated as 0.758, 0.634, and 0.821, respectively. The modified T.O.HO. created by adding stone volume was statistically significantly superior to the original version (ROC curve comparison, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: The T.O.HO. score effectively predicted stone-free status after fURS. However, Modified T.O.HO. SS showed the best predictive performance compared with original T.O.HO. SS.

PMID:34320257 | DOI:10.1111/ijcp.14653

J Oral Rehabil. 2021 Jul 28. doi: 10.1111/joor.13235. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the effect of the type of splint material, Heat-Cured PMMA (HC) or Chemical-Cured PMMA (CC) on the wear of opposing tooth surfaces.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this in-vitro study was to evaluate two-body wear of dentin, enamel, glass-ceramic or one of four resin composites when opposing splint materials, namely ProBase HC and CC.

METHODS: The two-body wear of bovine dentine, bovine enamel, glass-ceramic IPS e.max CAD (EMAX) and four composites (Filtek Z250 (Z250), Clearfil AP-X (AP-X), Clearfil Majesty Posterior (CMP), Filtek Supreme XTE (FSE)) opposing three antagonists (HC and CC and stainless steel as control) were evaluated in the ACTA wear machine. In addition, all the surfaces were evaluated with scanning electron microscopy.

RESULTS: The highest average wear was observed in the case of dentin. The lowest average wear was found EMAX. In every case -except for EMAX – the wear rate was higher with HC than with CC (all differences being statistically significant).

CONCLUSIONS: The level of wear of enamel, dentin and various resin composites was higher in contact with HC than in CC, the wear of dentin being the highest. In the case of a patient with no or little tooth wear or whose teeth are restored with composite material or glass-ceramic, the splint HC might be preferred because of its better durability. However, when the splint is in contact with opposing dentin preservation of the dentin CC might be the best choice.

PMID:34320246 | DOI:10.1111/joor.13235

Biom J. 2021 Jul 28. doi: 10.1002/bimj.202000256. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Chromatin dynamics are central to the regulation of gene expression and genome stability. In order to improve understanding of the factors regulating chromatin dynamics, the genes encoding these factors are deleted and the differential gene expression profiles are determined using approaches such as RNA sequencing. Here, we analyzed a gene expression dataset aimed at uncovering the function of the relatively uncharacterized chromatin regulator, Set4, in the model system Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast). The main theme of this paper focuses on identifying the highly differentially expressed genes in cells deleted for Set4 (referred to as Set4 $\Delta$ mutant dataset) compared to the wild-type yeast cells. The Set4 $\Delta$ mutant data produce a spiky distribution on the log-fold changes of their expressions, and it is reasonably assumed that genes which are not highly differentially expressed come from a mixture of two normal distributions. We propose an adaptive local false discovery rate (FDR) procedure, which estimates the null distribution of the log-fold changes empirically. We numerically show that, unlike existing approaches, our proposed method controls FDR at the aimed level (0.05) and also has competitive power in finding differentially expressed genes. Finally, we apply our procedure to analyzing the Set4 $\Delta$ mutant dataset.

PMID:34320248 | DOI:10.1002/bimj.202000256

Hepatology. 2021 Jul 28. doi: 10.1002/hep.32074. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Wilson disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by ATP7B gene mutations leading to pathologic accumulation of copper in the liver and brain. Adoption of initial treatments for WD was based on empiric observations. These therapies are effective, but there are still are unmet needs for which new treatment modalities are being developed. Randomized controlled phase 3 studies are lacking for current WD treatments.

APPROACH AND RESULTS: The first Wilson Disease Aarhus Symposium (May 2019) included a workshop on randomized clinical trial (RCT) design. The authors of the paper were organizers or presented during this workshop and this article presents their consensus on the design of clinical trials for WD, addressing trial population, treatment comparators, inclusion and exclusion criteria and treatment endpoints. To achieve adequate recruitment of patients with this rare disorder, the study groups should include all clinical phenotypes and treatment-experienced as well as treatment-naive patients.

CONCLUSIONS: The primary study endpoint should be clinical or a composite endpoint until appropriate surrogate endpoints are validated. Standardization of clinical trials will permit pooling of data and allow for better treatment comparisons, as well as reduce the future numbers of patients needed per trial.

PMID:34320232 | DOI:10.1002/hep.32074