Tag: statistics

J Craniofac Surg. 2025 Apr 15. doi: 10.1097/SCS.0000000000011402. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The masseter and temporal muscles are primary jaw muscles vital for chewing and speaking, which work in tandem for effective mastication. On the basis of the reported studies that masseter botulinum toxin A injection causes masseter muscle atrophy without impairing chewing function in most patients, this study explores whether the temporal muscle thickens compensatively after injection of botulinum toxin A into masseter muscle. In this prospective study, the authors analyzed data from 10 patients who were treated with botulinum toxin A injection into the masseter. Ultrasonographic images of the masseter and temporal muscles were obtained to measure the muscle thickness at rest and in contraction before and 1, 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks after the injection. Repeated measures one-way ANOVA was used to compare the statistical significance of the data and simpler linear regression to find the relationship of thickness changes between the masseter and temporal muscles. During the 3-month follow-up, there was a statistically significant decrease in masseter thickness and a corresponding increase in temporalis thickness. Masseter thickness decreased from 14.21±2.95 to 10.42±1.59 mm at rest, and from 15.08±3.11 to 11.30±1.8 mm in contraction (P<0.0001). Temporalis thickness increased from 9.27±2.18 to 13.05±1.49 mm at rest and from 10.12±2.44 to 13.74±1.59 mm in contraction (P<0.0001). There was a negative linear relationship between the thickness of masseter and temporal muscles. No serious complications occurred. Temporal muscle thickness increased after the injection of botulinum toxin A into the masseter.

PMID:40233307 | DOI:10.1097/SCS.0000000000011402

PLoS One. 2025 Apr 15;20(4):e0310578. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310578. eCollection 2025.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: People with Parkinson’s (PwP) can experience both physical and psychological symptoms, and understanding the perspectives of people affected is crucial for improved management, and clinical outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: This online survey aimed to gain a better understanding of the relationship between the subjectively experienced physical and psychological symptoms by PwP and their carers, while also considering the influence of personal roles and past symptom experiences.

METHODS: A UK-wide survey of 251 PwP and 62 carers was conducted. The survey focused on reported diagnosed and non-diagnosed psychological symptoms experienced, their onset, and the perceived impact of physical and psychological symptoms on one another. Responses were summarised using descriptive statistics.

RESULTS: A substantial proportion of respondents reported at least one diagnosed psychological condition (38.5%) or undiagnosed psychological symptoms (44.6%) such as anxiety and depression. Half of respondents reported perceiving a bi-directional interaction between physical and psychological symptoms, with this perception most reported in people with prior experience of psychological symptoms. Our sample shows that while PwP and carers have similar views on the impact of psychological symptoms, carers perceive the impact of physical symptoms to be greater than PwP.

CONCLUSIONS: PwP and carers appear to perceive an interaction between physical and psychological symptoms in Parkinson’s, noting that psychological symptoms frequently precede Parkinson’s diagnosis but are often under-recognised. Improved awareness of the potential link between physical and psychological symptoms in PwP may help to improve assessment, and onward referral processes to enhance care. Further research may assist in identifying potential disease subtypes and allow the prediction of changes in physical and psychological presentation.

PMID:40233306 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0310578

JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2025 Apr;9:e2400235. doi: 10.1200/CCI-24-00235. Epub 2025 Apr 15.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Access to cancer-related data in online patient portals is not uniform. Perspectives of pediatric patients with cancer and caregivers on their desires and experiences accessing cancer-related data via an online patient portal have been poorly described. These perspectives are crucial for informing both hospital-level policies and governmental regulations. This study aims to explore the preferences of pediatric oncology patients and their caregivers regarding the timing of medical test result release into online portals.

METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at a tertiary academic pediatric center in Toronto, Canada. English-speaking pediatric patients with cancer age 12 years and older, as well as their caregivers, were invited to participate. A 59-question survey was administered to participants between June and August 2024.

RESULTS: A total of 105 participants, including 40 patients and 65 caregivers, completed the survey. Forty-one (53.9%) participants reported that a health care provider had discussed with them the possibility that they might be viewing test results online before their care team had reviewed the result. Immediate release of test results was preferred across most testing domains, with >80% of participants favoring immediate access, even for sensitive oncology-related results. Less than 1% of participants believed that genetic or cancer recurrence results should be withheld until reviewed by an oncology provider. No participants reported increased worry as a result of viewing test results online.

CONCLUSION: This study reveals a strong preference among pediatric oncology patients and their caregivers for immediate access to test results, challenging traditional concerns about the psychological impact of early release. These findings suggest that oncology practices should consider aligning their policies with patient and caregiver preferences.

PMID:40233297 | DOI:10.1200/CCI-24-00235

Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2025 Apr 4. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004807. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) are serious infections of the skin and subcutaneous tissue that include major cutaneous abscesses, cellulitis/erysipelas, and wound infections. ABSSSI caused by gram-positive pathogens are common in children, who tend to experience high rates of morbidity and hospitalization due to ABSSSI, including those caused by antibacterial-resistant pathogens.

METHODS: This phase 3 study (NCT03176134) investigated the safety of tedizolid phosphate and its ability to treat ABSSSI in pediatric participants 28 days to <12 years of age. A total of 100 participants were randomized 3:1 to intravenous and/or oral tedizolid phosphate for 6-10 days or intravenous and/or oral comparator for 10-14 days; participants were stratified and enrolled by age cohort. The primary objective was to evaluate the safety of tedizolid phosphate versus comparators using descriptive statistics. The secondary objective was to evaluate clinical response at the test-of-cure (TOC) visit in the intent-to-treat and clinically evaluable populations.

RESULTS: Tedizolid phosphate was well tolerated, and adverse events were comparable between the tedizolid phosphate and comparator groups. Clinical success rates at the TOC visit in the intent-to-treat and clinically evaluable populations were high (>90%) and comparable between groups. All participants in the tedizolid phosphate treatment group who had skin culture results at baseline experienced favorable microbiological response at the TOC visit.

CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide evidence to support the use of tedizolid phosphate to treat ABSSSI caused by gram-positive pathogens in pediatric patients from 28 days to <12 years of age.

PMID:40233296 | DOI:10.1097/INF.0000000000004807

J Clin Oncol. 2025 Apr 15:JCO2402119. doi: 10.1200/JCO-24-02119. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The aim of this open-label, multicenter, randomized controlled trial was to determine the efficacy and safety of sequential umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell (UC-MSC) infusion for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prevention within 3 months of haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo-HSCT).

METHODS: This open-label study evaluated UC-MSC infusion (administer 1 × 10⁶/kg 4 hours before the commencement of day 0, once weekly for the first month after transplantation, once every 2 weeks for the second month, and once during the third month, totaling eight doses). The primary end point was the 2-year cumulative incidence of severe chronic GVHD (cGVHD).

RESULTS: In the primary analysis, 192 qualified participants between age 18 and 60 years with haplo-HSCT in three transplant centers in China were enrolled and randomly assigned to the MSC and control groups. In the primary analysis, the estimated 2-year cumulative incidence of severe cGVHD and all grades of cGVHD was lower in the MSC group than in the control group (P = .033 and P = .022). The cumulative incidence of grade 1 to 4, 2 to 4, and 3 to 4 acute GVHD (aGVHD) in patients in the MSC group significantly decreased (all P < .001). The 3-year GVHD-free and relapse-free survival (GRFS) rate in the MSC group was 62.4%, which was significantly higher than that in the control group (32.0%, hazard ratio [HR], 0.34, P < .001). MSC infusion did not influence the cumulative incidence of relapse (P = .34) and nonrelapse mortality (P = .45).

CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that sequential infusion of MSCs within 3 months after haplo-HSCT significantly reduced both the incidence and severity of cGVHD and aGVHD, manifesting as a better GRFS rate for patients.

PMID:40233291 | DOI:10.1200/JCO-24-02119

J Asthma. 2025 Apr 15:1-6. doi: 10.1080/02770903.2025.2490106. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This real-world study evaluates the improvement in asthma control, drug burden reduction, and physical and mental health in patients with severe eosinophilic asthma treated with biologicals.

METHODS: We enrolled 127 patients with severe eosinophilic asthma from two centers, treating them with add-on biological therapy. The asthma control test (ACT) and the Short-form Health Survey-12 (SF-12), including Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS), were used, assessing drug history at baseline (T0) and after 32 weeks of biological therapy (T1).

RESULTS: A significant improvement in asthma control was observed after the biological treatment (ACT score: 11(8) vs 23(3), p < 0.0001), with most patients achieving asthma control at T1 (110, 86.6%). There was a statistically significant reduction in the use of non-biological drugs at T1, such as oral corticosteroids (40.2% vs 17.3%, p < 0.0001), inhalation therapy (75.6% vs 57.5%, p = 0.001), leukotriene receptor antagonists (34.6% vs 25.2%, p < 0.0001), and antihistamines (42.5% vs 18.1%, p < 0.0001). ACT and PCS scores at T1 had a strong positive correlation (r = 0.749, p < 0.0001), as did ACT and MCS scores (r = 0.744, p < 0.0001). Our study shows that the biological treatments for severe eosinophilic asthma, properly characterized through a careful phenotypic assessment, significantly improve asthma control and reduce drug burden (notably oral corticosteroids, inhalation therapy, leukotriene receptor antagonists, and antihistamines), as well as enhance both physical and mental health irrespective of age and sex.

PMID:40233270 | DOI:10.1080/02770903.2025.2490106

Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2025 Apr 15. doi: 10.1111/nyas.15331. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Compared to adults, prepubertal children exhibit underdeveloped cholinergic sweating. How maturation affects cholinergic sweating through early adulthood remains unclear. We assessed the influence of age and sex on cholinergic sweating, including seasonal acclimatization, in groups of prepubescent to young adult males and females. A total of 405 children and adolescents (ages 6-17; 229 boys and 176 girls) and 52 young adults (ages 18-25; 25 males and 27 females) underwent pilocarpine iontophoresis on the ventral forearm to induce cholinergic sweating during summer (n = 111) and non-summer (n = 457). Sweat gland output, calculated as sweat rate divided by activated sweat gland density, was compared between sexes and across age groups in 2-year intervals until age 17. We observed statistically significant sex-related differences in sweat gland output in children as young as 8-9 years of age, with even greater differences between sexes in groups 14-15 years of age and older. The changes in cholinergic sweating function occurred independently of maturational changes in body morphology. Our results offer insight into the sex differences in cholinergic sweating activity during maturation from childhood to adolescence.

PMID:40233267 | DOI:10.1111/nyas.15331

J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2025 Apr 14. doi: 10.1037/xlm0001487. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This short review summarizes the ways in which articles published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition have changed over the past 25 years, with a special focus on the 6 years of my recently completed editorial term (2018-2024). We evaluated the content of articles in the journal with respect to areas of priority outlined in my inaugural Editorial (Benjamin, 2019), including sample sizes, statistical approaches, and a number of other factors. Enhancements that stand to increase replicability, reproducibility, and open scientific exchange are evident but in certain areas are more modest than others. Establishing changes to a scientific culture requires consistent assays of the field and its behaviors, as well as a long time horizon for measuring change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

PMID:40232832 | DOI:10.1037/xlm0001487

J Med Microbiol. 2025 Apr;74(4). doi: 10.1099/jmm.0.002004.

ABSTRACT

Introduction. Accumulating evidence indicates a significant association between gut microbiota and the risk of developing pyogenic arthritis (PA). However, their causal relationship has yet to be elucidated.Hypothesis. The gut microbiota is causally associated with the risk of PA.Aim. The Mendelian randomization (MR) methodology was employed to assess the potential causal effects of gut microbiota on the susceptibility to PA.Methodology. A two-sample MR study was performed using the summary statistics of gut microbiota from the largest available genome-wide association study meta-analysis (n=13,266) conducted by the MiBioGen consortium. The summary statistics of PA were obtained from the R11 release data provided by the FinnGen consortium (2,441 cases and 2,87,796 controls). Inverse-variance weighted (IVW) model, weighted median estimator model, weighted model-based method and MR-Egger regression (MER) model were used to examine the causal association between gut microbiota and PA. To assess the heterogeneity and pleiotropic effects of the identified instrumental variables (IVs), we utilized several analytical methods, including the leave-one-out sensitivity analysis, the MR Pleiotropy Residual Sum and Outlier test and Cochran’s Q test.Results. Utilizing the IVW method, we identified six bacterial traits that were negatively correlated with PA: Eubacterium eligens group [OR: 0.6057; 95 % confidence interval (CI): 0.4525 to 0.8107; P=0.0007], Barnesiella (OR: 0.7456; 95 % CI: 0.5760 to 0.9651; P=0.0258), Coprococcus2 (OR: 0.7257; 95 % CI: 0.5352 to 0.9840; P=0.0391), Ruminococcaceae UCG005 (OR: 0.7562; 95 % CI: 0.5920 to 0.9660; P=0.0252), E. oxidoreducens group (OR: 0.7311; 95 % CI: 0.5547 to 0.9637; P=0.0262) and Lachnospiraceae FCS020 group (OR: 0.7825; 95 % CI: 0.6135 to 0.9981; P=0.0482), respectively. On the contrary, four bacterial traits were positively correlated with PA: Adlercreutzia (OR 1.3210, 95 % CI 1.0181-1.7141, P=0.0362), Holdemania (OR 1.2239, 95 % CI 1.0013-1.4960, P=0.0485), Anaerostipes (OR 1.3614, 95 % CI 1.0189-1.8191, P=0.0369) and Butyricimonas (OR 1.2627, 95 % CI 1.0016-1.5921, P=0.0484), respectively. No significant heterogeneity among IVs or evidence of horizontal pleiotropy was detected.Conclusion. Our research demonstrates a potential causal link between various gut microbiota and the risk of PA. Further research is imperative to elucidate the mechanisms by which gut microbiota influence the pathogenesis of PA.

PMID:40232815 | DOI:10.1099/jmm.0.002004

Oncoimmunology. 2025 Dec;14(1):2492932. doi: 10.1080/2162402X.2025.2492932. Epub 2025 Apr 15.

ABSTRACT

EVIDENS was a prospective, non-interventional, longitudinal study conducted in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients receiving nivolumab in France. It recruited adults with pathologically confirmed NSCLC who initiated nivolumab between October 2016 and November 2017; the final results are reported here. Primary outcomes included baseline characteristics and 36-month overall survival (OS). Secondary outcomes included progression free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR), safety and health-related quality of life (HRQoL; assessed regardless of nivolumab continuation or interruption). Overall, 1423 patients were included in the analysis population (median age 66 years; non-squamous histology 69.1%; stage IV disease 91.5%; brain metastases 19.9%). Almost all patients (99.7%) had received prior chemotherapy, and most patients received nivolumab as second-line (73.5%) or later (26.1%) therapy. The 36-month OS rate was 19.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 17.5-22.0); OS was significantly shorter in patients with squamous versus non-squamous tumors (9.8 [95% CI 8.6-11.2] months vs 11.8 [95% CI 10.2-13.2] months; p = 0.005). The 36-month PFS rate was 8.8% (95% CI 7.3-10.4). The 12-month investigator-assessed best ORR in the overall population was 20.4%. Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, smoking status, tumor histology, disease stage and liver metastasis independently predicted survival. Grade 3 and 4 treatment-related adverse events were reported in 8.0% and 0.8% of patients, respectively; eight treatment-related deaths occurred (0.005%). HRQoL was maintained with slight improvement throughout the study, without statistical significance. These results confirm that the real-world effectiveness and safety of nivolumab in these patients is similar to that observed in clinical trials.

PMID:40232811 | DOI:10.1080/2162402X.2025.2492932