Digital Commons Network^™

Bintrafusp Alfa: A Bifunctional Fusion Protein Targeting Pd-L1 And Tgf-Β, In Patients With Pretreated Colorectal Cancer: Results From A Phase I Trial, Alexander Spira, Michael S Wertheim, Edward J Kim, Benjamin Tan, Heinz-Josef Lenz, Petros Nikolinakos, Patricia L Rich, Genevieve Jehl, Andreas Machl, Rena Ito, James L Gulley, Scott Kopetz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous and complex disease with limited treatment options. Targeting transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) and programmed death ligand 1 pathways may enhance antitumor efficacy. Bintrafusp alfa is a first-in-class bifunctional fusion protein composed of the extracellular domain of TGF-β receptor II (a TGF-β "trap") fused to a human IgG1 monoclonal antibody blocking programmed cell death ligand 1. We report results from an expansion cohort of a phase I study (NCT02517398) in patients with heavily pretreated advanced CRC treated with bintrafusp alfa. As of May 15, 2020, 32 patients with advanced CRC had received …

Production Of A Monoclonal Antibody For The Detection Of Forchlorfenuron: Application In An Indirect Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay And Immunochromatographic Strip, Xingmei Lei, A M Abd El-Aty, Lingyuan Xu, Jing Zhao, Jia Li, Song Gao, Yun Zhao, Yongxin She, Fen Jin, Jing Wang, Lufei Zheng, Maojun Jin, Bruce D Hammock

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In this study, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) specific to forchlorfenuron (CPPU) with high sensitivity and specificity was produced and designated (9G9). To detect CPPU in cucumber samples, an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ic-ELISA) and a colloidal gold nanobead immunochromatographic test strip (CGN-ICTS) were established using 9G9. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) and the LOD for the developed ic-ELISA were determined to be 0.19 ng/mL and 0.04 ng/mL in the sample dilution buffer, respectively. The results indicate that the sensitivity of the antibodies prepared in this study (9G9 mAb) was higher than those reported in the previous literature. On the other …

Anxiety And Stress Among Healthcare Professionals During Covid-19 In Ethiopia: Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Aragaw Asfaw Hasen, Abubeker Alebachew Seid, Ahmed Adem Mohammed

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: This study intended to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety and stress among healthcare professionals in Ethiopia.

DESIGN: This study applied a design of systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

DATA SOURCES: ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA AND OUTCOMES: Observational studies examining anxiety and stress among healthcare professionals in Ethiopia following COVID-19 pandemic were considered. The primary outcomes were the prevalence of anxiety and stress and the secondary outcomes were factors associated to the prevalence of anxiety and stress.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two authors extracted the data and performed quality assessment independently. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to …

Evaluation Of New Potential Inflammatory Markers In Patients With Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation, Gabriela Lopes Martins, Rita Carolina Figueiredo Duarte, Érica Leandro Marciano Vieira, Natália Pessoa Rocha, Estêvão Lanna Figueiredo, Francisco Rezende Silveira, José Raymundo Sollero Caiaffa, Rodrigo Pinheiro Lanna, Maria Das Graças Carvalho, András Palotás, Cláudia Natália Ferreira, Helton José Reis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common arrhythmia in clinical practice, is associated with an increase in mortality and morbidity due to its high potential to cause stroke and systemic thromboembolism. Inflammatory mechanisms may play a role in the pathogenesis of AF and its maintenance. We aimed to evaluate a range of inflammatory markers as potentially involved in the pathophysiology of individuals with nonvalvular AF (NVAF). A total of 105 subjects were enrolled and divided into two groups: patients with NVAF (n = 55, mean age 72 ± 8 years) and a control group of individuals in sinus rhythm (n = …

Intestinal Toxicity To Ctla-4 Blockade Driven By Il-6 And Myeloid Infiltration, Yifan Zhou, Yusra B Medik, Bhakti Patel, Daniel B Zamler, Sijie Chen, Thomas Chapman, Sarah Schneider, Elizabeth M Park, Rachel L Babcock, Taylor T Chrisikos, Laura M Kahn, Allison M Dyevoich, Josue E Pineda, Matthew C Wong, Aditya K Mishra, Samuel H Cass, Alexandria P Cogdill, Daniel H Johnson, Sarah B Johnson, Khalida Wani, Debora A Ledesma, Courtney W Hudgens, Jingjing Wang, Md Abdul Wadud Khan, Christine B Peterson, Aron Y Joon, Weiyi Peng, Haiyan S Li, Reetakshi Arora, Ximing Tang, Maria Gabriela Raso, Xuegong Zhang, Wai Chin Foo, Michael T Tetzlaff, Gretchen E Diehl, Karen Clise-Dwyer, Elizabeth M Whitley, Matthew M Gubin, James P Allison, Patrick Hwu, Nadim J Ajami, Adi Diab, Jennifer A Wargo, Stephanie S Watowich

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has revolutionized cancer treatment, yet quality of life and continuation of therapy can be constrained by immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Limited understanding of irAE mechanisms hampers development of approaches to mitigate their damage. To address this, we examined whether mice gained sensitivity to anti-CTLA-4 (αCTLA-4)–mediated toxicity upon disruption of gut homeostatic immunity. We found αCTLA-4 drove increased inflammation and colonic tissue damage in mice with genetic predisposition to intestinal inflammation, acute gastrointestinal infection, transplantation with a dysbiotic fecal microbiome, or dextran sodium sulfate administration. We identified an immune signature of αCTLA-4–mediated irAEs, including colonic neutrophil accumulation …

Assessment Of Response To Neoadjuvant Systemic Treatment In Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Using Functional Tumor Volumes From Longitudinal Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Mri, Bikash Panthi, Beatriz E Adrada, Rosalind P Candelaria, Mary S Guirguis, Clinton Yam, Medine Boge, Huiqin Chen, Kelly K Hunt, Lei Huo, Ken-Pin Hwang, Anil Korkut, Deanna L Lane, Huong C Le-Petross, Jessica W T Leung, Jennifer K Litton, Rania M Mohamed, Benjamin C Musall, Sanaz Pashapoor, Miral M Patel, Frances Perez, Jong Bum Son, Alastair Thompson, Vicente Valero, Peng Wei, Jason White, Zhan Xu, Lawrence Pinsky, Debu Tripathy, Wei Yang, Jingfei Ma, Gaiane M Rauch

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Early assessment of neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NAST) response for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is critical for patient care in order to avoid the unnecessary toxicity of an ineffective treatment. We assessed functional tumor volumes (FTVs) from dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI after 2 cycles (C2) and 4 cycles (C4) of NAST as predictors of response in TNBC. A group of 100 patients with stage I-III TNBC who underwent DCE MRI at baseline, C2, and C4 were included in this study. Tumors were segmented on DCE images of 1 min and 2.5 min post-injection. FTVs were measured using the optimized percentage enhancement …

Dynamic Cone-Beam Ct Reconstruction Using Spatial And Temporal Implicit Neural Representation Learning (Stinr), You Zhang, Hua-Chieh Shao, Tinsu Pan, Tielige Mengke

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective. Dynamic cone-beam CT (CBCT) imaging is highly desired in image-guided radiation therapy to provide volumetric images with high spatial and temporal resolutions to enable applications including tumor motion tracking/prediction and intra-delivery dose calculation/accumulation. However, dynamic CBCT reconstruction is a substantially challenging spatiotemporal inverse problem, due to the extremely limited projection sample available for each CBCT reconstruction (one projection for one CBCT volume).

Approach. We developed a simultaneous spatial and temporal implicit neural representation (STINR) method for dynamic CBCT reconstruction. STINR mapped the unknown image and the evolution of its motion into spatial and temporal multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs), and …

Hemiparkinsonism Caused By A Lateral Sphenoid Wing Meningioma, With Tractography Analysis: Illustrative Case, Attill Saemann, Stefan Busch, Ethan Taub, Birgit Westermann, Cristina Granziera, Raphael Guzman, Luigi Mariani, Jehuda Soleman, Jonathan Rychen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The etiologies of parkinsonism are diverse. A possible and rare cause of hemiparkinsonism is mechanical compression of the basal ganglia and its connecting white matter tracts. The authors present a case of hemiparkinsonism caused by a lateral sphenoid wing meningioma, discuss the underlying pathophysiology based on tractography, and systematically review the existing literature.

OBSERVATIONS: A 59-year-old female was referred for a left-sided tremor of the hand, accompanied by a cogwheel rigidity of the left arm. Symptomatology appeared 1 year earlier and worsened in the previous 6 months, finally also showing involvement of the left leg. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) …

Patient-Reported Symptoms At Discharge And Risk Of Complications After Gynecologic Surgery, Xin Shelley Wang, Pedro T Ramirez, Qiuling Shi, Mona Kamal, Araceli Garcia-Gonzalez, Maria D Iniesta, Charles S Cleeland, Larissa A Meyer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: Current gaps in knowledge limit clinicians from fully implementing patient-reported outcomes in routine post-operative care.

Methods: This prospective study assessed symptoms via the gynecologic module of the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI-PeriOp-GYN) in patients who underwent open laparotomy.

Results: At discharge, patient-reported moderate to severe (≥4 on a 0-10 scale) abdominal bloating or abdominal cramping, combined with length of stay of ≥4 days, were found to be associated with a higher risk of 30-day post-operative grade II-IV complications by the Clavien-Dindo system (all p values < 0.01). Also, length of stay of ≥4 days and moderate to severe urinary urgency at discharge were found to be associated with the need for re-admission (all p values < 0.01).

Conclusion: This study defined the clinically meaningful symptoms that related to the risk of …

Long And Short Duration Exposures To The Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (Ssris) Fluoxetine, Paroxetine And Sertraline At Environmentally Relevant Concentrations Lead To Adverse Effects On Zebrafish Behaviour And Reproduction, Ananda Baskaran Venkatachalam, Bailey Levesque, John C Achenbach, Jane J Pappas, Lee D Ellis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are currently the most prescribed class of psychotropic medications. Their increased global manufacture and use have become growing concerns for aquatic toxicologists and environmental biologists, who assess both the direct and indirect effects of substances on the environment and on human health. In order to assess the potential impact of environmentally relevant levels of SSRIs on fish development, behaviour and reproduction, we exposed juvenile and adult zebrafish to a select group of SSRIs using two separate exposure paradigms. In the first paradigm, juvenile zebrafish were exposed to Fluoxetine (Prozac), Paroxetine (Paxil), Sertraline (Zoloft) or a …

3,3'-Diindolylmethane Augments 5-Fluorouracil-Inducedgrowth Suppression In Gastric Cancer Cells Through Suppression Of The Akt/Gsk-3Β And Wnt/Beta-Catenin, Cong Shan Li, Thi Van Nguyen, Ok Hee Chai, Byung Hyun Park, Ju-Seog Lee, Soo Mi Kim

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most lethal cancers in South Korea, and it is a cancer of concern worldwide. 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) is commonly used as the first-line therapy for advanced GC; however, its side effects often limit the dosage range and impair patients' quality of life. Due to the limitations of current chemotherapy, new anticancer therapies are urgently needed. 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM) has been reported to have the ability to protect against various types of cancer. Our study aimed to elucidate the anticancer effect of DIM in GC when treated with the chemotherapeutic agent 5-Fu. In our results, combined …

Factors For Poor Oral Health In Long-Term Childhood Cancer Survivors, Tushar Patni, Chun-Teh Lee, Yimei Li, Sue Kaste, Liang Zhu, Ryan Sun, Melissa M Hudson, Kirsten K Ness, Ana Neumann, Leslie L Robison

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Survivors of childhood cancer are at risk for therapy-related dental diseases. The purpose of the study was to investigate the associations between clinical, socioeconomic, and demographic factors and oral diseases in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort (SJLIFE) participants.

Methods: We performed a retrospective medical chart review and evaluated longitudinal self-reported dental outcomes in 4856 childhood cancer survivors and 591 community controls participating in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort (SJLIFE) study. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess the impact of socioeconomic factors, treatment exposures and patient demographics on dental outcomes.

Results: Cancer survivors were more likely …

Response To: What Is Missing From The 2022 Practice Recommendation Updates From The World Consensus Conference On Bia-Alcl?, Fabio Santanelli Di Pompeo, Mark W Clemens, Michael Atlan, Giovanni Botti, Peter G Cordeiro, Daphne De Jong, Arianna Di Napoli, Dennis Hammond, Cara L Haymaker, Steven M Horwitz, Kelly Hunt, Peter Lennox, Patrick Mallucci, Roberto N Miranda, Alexandre M Munhoz, Demosthenes Panagiotakos, Eric C Swanson, Suzanne D Turner, Guido Firmani, Michail Sorotos

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Spatial Regulation Of The Glycocalyx Component Podocalyxin Is A Switch For Prometastatic Function, Alvaro Román-Fernández, Mohammed A Mansour, Fernanda G Kugeratski, Jayanthi Anand, Emma Sandilands, Laura Galbraith, Kai Rakovic, Eva C Freckmann, Erin M Cumming, Ji Park, Konstantina Nikolatou, Sergio Lilla, Robin Shaw, David Strachan, Susan Mason, Rachana Patel, Lynn Mcgarry, Archana Katoch, Kirsteen J Campbell, Colin Nixon, Crispin J Miller, Hing Y Leung, John Le Quesne, James C Norman, Sara Zanivan, Karen Blyth, David M Bryant

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The glycocalyx component and sialomucin podocalyxin (PODXL) is required for normal tissue development by promoting apical membranes to form between cells, triggering lumen formation. Elevated PODXL expression is also associated with metastasis and poor clinical outcome in multiple tumor types. How PODXL presents this duality in effect remains unknown. We identify an unexpected function of PODXL as a decoy receptor for galectin-3 (GAL3), whereby the PODXL-GAL3 interaction releases GAL3 repression of integrin-based invasion. Differential cortical targeting of PODXL, regulated by ubiquitination, is the molecular mechanism controlling alternate fates. Both PODXL high and low surface levels occur in parallel subpopulations within …

Spatially Resolved Single-Cell Assessment Of Pancreatic Cancer Expression Subtypes Reveals Co-Expressor Phenotypes And Extensive Intratumoral Heterogeneity, Hannah L Williams, Andressa Dias Costa, Jinming Zhang, Srivatsan Raghavan, Peter S Winter, Kevin S Kapner, Scott P Ginebaugh, Sara A Väyrynen, Juha P Väyrynen, Chen Yuan, Andrew W Navia, Junning Wang, Annan Yang, Timothy L Bosse, Radha L Kalekar, Kristen E Lowder, Mai Chan Lau, Dalia Elganainy, Vicente Morales-Oyarvide, Douglas A Rubinson, Harshabad Singh, Kimberly Perez, James M Cleary, Thomas E Clancy, Jiping Wang, Joseph D Mancias, Lauren K Brais, Emma R Hill, Margaret M Kozak, David C Linehan, Richard F Dunne, Daniel T Chang, Albert C Koong, Aram F Hezel, William C Hahn, Alex K Shalek, Andrew J Aguirre, Jonathan A Nowak, Brian M Wolpin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has been classified into classical and basal-like transcriptional subtypes by bulk RNA measurements. However, recent work has uncovered greater complexity to transcriptional subtypes than was initially appreciated using bulk RNA expression profiling. To provide a deeper understanding of PDAC subtypes, we developed a multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) pipeline that quantifies protein expression of six PDAC subtype markers (CLDN18.2, TFF1, GATA6, KRT17, KRT5, and S100A2) and permits spatially resolved, single-cell interrogation of pancreatic tumors from resection specimens and core needle biopsies. Both primary and metastatic tumors displayed striking intratumoral subtype heterogeneity that was associated with patient outcomes, existed …

Immunogenetic Determinants Of Susceptibility To Head And Neck Cancer In The Million Veteran Program Cohort, Yanhong Liu, Jennifer R Kramer, Vlad C Sandulache, Robert Yu, Guojun Li, Liang Chen, Zenab I Yusuf, Yunling Shi, Saiju Pyarajan, Spyros Tsavachidis, Li Jiao, Michelle L Mierzwa, Elizabeth Chiao, Yvonne M Mowery, Andrew Shuman, Sanjay Shete, Andrew G Sikora, Donna L White

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Increasing rates of human papillomavirus (HPV)-driven oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) have largely offset declines in tobacco-associated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) at non-OPC sites. Host immunity is an important modulator of HPV infection, persistence, and clearance, and also of immune evasion in both virally- and nonvirally-driven cancers. However, the association between collective known cancer-related immune gene variants and HNSCC susceptibility has not been fully characterized. Here, we conducted a genetic association study in the multiethnic Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program cohort, evaluating 16,050 variants in 1,576 immune genes in 4,012 HNSCC cases (OPC = 1,823; non-OPC = 2,189) and …

Tumor-Associated Nonmyelinating Schwann Cell-Expressed Nuclear Export Signal Mutation Of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Enhances Malignant Phenotypes Of Cancer Cells, Chengcao Sun, Youqiong Ye, Zhi Tan, Yuan Liu, Yajuan Li, Wei Hu, Ke Liang, Sergey D Egranov, Lisa Angela Huang, Zhao Zhang, Yaohua Zhang, Jun Yao, Tina K Nguyen, Zilong Zhao, Andrew Wu, Jeffrey R Marks, Abigail S Caudle, Aysegul A Sahin, Jianjun Gao, Seth T Gammon, David Piwnica-Worms, Jian Hu, Paul J Chiao, Dihua Yu, Mien-Chie Hung, Michael A Curran, George A Calin, Haoqiang Ying, Leng Han, Chunru Lin, Liuqing Yang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

One of the major obstacles to treating pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is its immunoresistant microenvironment. The functional importance and molecular mechanisms of Schwann cells in PDAC remains largely elusive. We characterized the gene signature of tumor-associated nonmyelinating Schwann cells (TASc) in PDAC and indicated that the abundance of TASc was correlated with immune suppressive tumor microenvironment and the unfavorable outcome of patients with PDAC. Depletion of pancreatic-specific TASc promoted the tumorigenesis of PDAC tumors. TASc-expressed long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (

Association Between P2y12 Inhibitor Reloading And In-Hospital Outcomes For Patients With Non-St-Segment Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome Already On Chronic P2y12 Receptor Inhibitors Therapy In China: Findings From The Ccc-Acs (Improving Care For Cardiovascular Disease In China-Acute Coronary Syndrome) Project, Yintang Wang, Yu Geng, Ou Zhang, Qin Xu, Yajun Xue, Boda Zhou, Ping Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The association between P2Y12 receptor inhibitors reloading and in-hospital outcomes in non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTEACS) patients who were on chronic P2Y12 receptor inhibitors therapy remained underdetermined.

METHODS: The Improving Care for Cardiovascular Disease in China-Acute Coronary Syndrome (CCC-ACS project) is a national registry active from November 2014 to December 2019. 4790 NSTEACS patients on chronic P2Y12 receptor inhibitors therapy were included. Cox proportional hazard models, Kaplan-Meier curves, and subgroup analyses were conducted.

RESULTS: The NSTEACS patients who received reloading of P2Y12 receptor inhibitors were younger and had fewer comorbid conditions. The reloading group had a lower risk …

Effective Treatment Of Low-Risk Acute Gvhd With Itacitinib Monotherapy, Aaron Etra, Alexandra Capellini, Amin Alousi, Monzr M Al Malki, Hannah Choe, Zachariah Defilipp, William J Hogan, Carrie L Kitko, Francis Ayuk, Janna Baez, Isha Gandhi, Stelios Kasikis, Sigrun Gleich, Elizabeth Hexner, Matthias Hoepting, Urvi Kapoor, Steven Kowalyk, Deukwoo Kwon, Amelia Langston, Marco Mielcarek, George Morales, Umut Özbek, Muna Qayed, Ran Reshef, Wolf Rösler, Nikolaos Spyrou, Rachel Young, Yi-Bin Chen, James L M Ferrara, John E Levine

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The standard primary treatment for acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) requires prolonged, high-dose systemic corticosteroids (SCSs) that delay reconstitution of the immune system. We used validated clinical and biomarker staging criteria to identify a group of patients with low-risk (LR) GVHD that is very likely to respond to SCS. We hypothesized that itacitinib, a selective JAK1 inhibitor, would effectively treat LR GVHD without SCS. We treated 70 patients with LR GVHD in a multicenter, phase 2 trial (NCT03846479) with 28 days of itacitinib 200 mg/d (responders could receive a second 28-day cycle), and we compared their outcomes to those …

Neighborhood Deprivation And Residential Property Values Do Not Affect Weight Loss At 1 Or 3 Years After Bariatric Surgery, Adam Drewnowski, Benjamin D Hong, Ernest Shen, Ming Ji, Silvia R Paz, Bhumi B Bhakta, Mayra Macias, Cecelia L Crawford, Kristina H Lewis, Jialuo Liu, Darren D Moore, Sameer B Murali, Deborah R Young, Karen J Coleman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the association between individual- and neighborhood-level sociodemographic factors and surgical weight loss at 1 year (short term) and 3 years (long term).

METHODS: Data were obtained from the baseline survey of the BELONG (Bariatric Experience Long Term) prospective longitudinal cohort study. Individual-level self-reported data on sex, race and ethnicity, education, and household income were obtained by survey. Data from the 2010 US Census were used to calculate area Neighborhood Deprivation Index score and median value of owner-occupied housing units at the census tract level.

RESULTS: Patients (N = 1341) had a mean age of 43.4 (SD …

Early Feasibility Of Endovascular Repair Of Distal Aortic Arch Aneurysms Using Patient-Specific Single Retrograde Left Subclavian Artery Branch Stent Graft, Joshua Wong, Emanuel R Tenorio, Guilherme Lima, Marina Dias-Neto, Aidin Baghbani-Oskouei, Bernardo Mendes, Jarin Kratzberg, Laura Ocasio, Thanila A Macedo, Gustavo S Oderich

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: To describe the feasibility and outcomes of endovascular repair of distal aortic arch aneurysms using a patient-specific stent graft with a pre-loaded single retrograde left subclavian artery (LSA) branch stent graft.

METHODS: We reviewed the clinical data and outcomes of consecutive patients enrolled in an ongoing prospective, non-randomized physician-sponsored investigational device exemption study to evaluate the outcomes of endovascular aortic arch repair using patient-specific arch branch stent grafts (William Cook Europe, Bjaeverskov, Denmark) between 2019 and 2022. All patients received a design with triple-wide scallop and a single retrograde LSA branch with a pre-loaded catheter.

RESULTS: There were five …

Discovering A New Part Of The Phenotypic Spectrum Of Coffin-Siris Syndrome In A Fetal Cohort, Pleuntje J Van Der Sluijs, Marieke Joosten, Caroline Alby, Tania Attié-Bitach, Kelly Gilmore, Christele Dubourg, Mélanie Fradin, Tianyun Wang, Evangeline C Kurtz-Nelson, Kaitlyn P Ahlers, Peer Arts, Christopher P Barnett, Myla Ashfaq, Anwar Baban, Myrthe Van Den Born, Sarah Borrie, Tiffany Busa, Alicia Byrne, Miriam Carriero, Claudia Cesario, Karen Chong, Anna Maria Cueto-González, Jennifer C Dempsey, Karin E M Diderich, Dan Doherty, Stense Farholt, Erica H Gerkes, Svetlana Gorokhova, Lutgarde C P Govaerts, Pernille A Gregersen, Scott E Hickey, Mathilde Lefebvre, Francesca Mari, Jelena Martinovic, Hope Northrup, Melanie O'Leary, Kareesma Parbhoo, Sophie Patrier, Bernt Popp, Fernando Santos-Simarro, Corinna Stoltenburg, Christel Thauvin-Robinet, Elisabeth Thompson, Anneke T Vulto-Van Silfhout, Farah R Zahir, Hamish S Scott, Rachel K Earl, Evan E Eichler, Neeta L Vora, Yael Wilnai, Jessica L Giordano, Ronald J Wapner, Jill A Rosenfeld, Monique C Haak, Gijs W E Santen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In the article “Discovering a new part of the phenotypic spectrum of Coffin-Siris syndrome in a fetal cohort” by van der Sluijs PJ et al (Genet Med 2022;24:1753–1760), the author listing was updated in the Supplementary Material from “H. Scott” to “H. S. Scott” and in Supplemental Figure 1 the labels in the figure caption for A, B, C, and D have been updated to match the figure artwork. The revised supplement file has been published with this correction.

Hemoglobin Concentration Impacts Viscoelastic Hemostatic Assays In Icu Admitted Patients, David J Roh, Tiffany R Chang, Aditya Kumar, Devin Burke, Glenda Torres, Katherine Xu, Winni Yang, Azzurra Cottarelli, Ernest Moore, Angela Sauaia, Kirk Hansen, Angela Velazquez, Amelia Boehme, Athina Vrosgou, Shivani Ghoshal, Soojin Park, Sachin Agarwal, Jan Claassen, E Sander Connolly, Gebhard Wagener, Richard O Francis, Eldad Hod

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objectives: Low hemoglobin concentration impairs clinical hemostasis across several diseases. It is unclear whether hemoglobin impacts laboratory functional coagulation assessments. We evaluated the relationship of hemoglobin concentration on viscoelastic hemostatic assays in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and perioperative patients admitted to an ICU.

Design: Observational cohort study and separate in vitro laboratory study.

Setting: Multicenter tertiary referral ICUs.

Patients: Two acute ICH cohorts receiving distinct testing modalities: rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) and thromboelastography (TEG), and a third surgical ICU cohort receiving ROTEM were evaluated to assess the generalizability of findings across disease processes and testing platforms. A separate in vitro ROTEM laboratory …

Automated Field-In-Field Whole Brain Radiotherapy Planning, Kai Huang, Soleil Hernandez, Chenyang Wang, Callistus Nguyen, Tina Marie Briere, Carlos Cardenas, Laurence Court, Yao Xiao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: We developed and tested an automatic field-in-field (FIF) solution for whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) planning that creates a homogeneous dose distribution by minimizing hotspots, resulting in clinically acceptable plans.

METHODS: A configurable auto-planning algorithm was developed to automatically generate FIF WBRT plans independent of the treatment planning system. Configurable parameters include the definition of hotspots, target volume, maximum number of subfields, and minimum number of monitor units per field. This algorithm iteratively identifies a hotspot, creates two opposing subfields, calculates the dose, and optimizes the beam weight based on user-configured constraints of dose-volume histogram coverage and least-squared cost functions. The …

Biological Correlates Of The Effects Of Auricular Point Acupressure On Pain, Chao Hsing Yeh, Nada Lukkahatai, Xinran Huang, Hulin Wu, Hongyu Wang, Jingyu Zhang, Xinyi Sun, Thomas J Smith

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: To identify candidate inflammatory biomarkers for the underlying mechanism of auricular point acupressure (APA) on pain relief and examine the correlations among pain intensity, interference, and inflammatory biomarkers.

DESIGN: This is a secondary data analysis.

METHODS: Data on inflammatory biomarkers collected via blood samples and patient self-reported pain intensity and interference from three pilot studies (chronic low back pain, n = 61; arthralgia related to aromatase inhibitors, n = 20; and chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, n = 15) were integrated and analyzed. This paper reports the results based on within-subject treatment effects (change in scores from pre- to post-APA intervention) for …

Spatial Molecular And Cellular Determinants Of Stat3 Activation In Liver Fibrosis Progression In Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Jingjing Jiao, Jessica I Sanchez, Omar A Saldarriaga, Luisa M Solis, David J Tweardy, Dipen M Maru, Heather L Stevenson, Laura Beretta

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its severe form, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), is increasing. Individuals with NASH often develop liver fibrosis and advanced liver fibrosis is the main determinant of mortality in individuals with NASH. We and others have reported that STAT3 contributes to liver fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in mice.

METHODS: Here, we explored whether STAT3 activation in hepatocyte and non-hepatocyte areas, measured by phospho-STAT3 (pSTAT3), is associated with liver fibrosis progression in 133 patients with NAFLD. We further characterized the molecular and cellular determinants of STAT3 activation by integrating spatial distribution and …

Machine Learning And Acute Stroke Imaging, Sunil A Sheth, Luca Giancardo, Marco Colasurdo, Visish M Srinivasan, Arash Niktabe, Peter Kan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: In recent years, machine learning (ML) has had notable success in providing automated analyses of neuroimaging studies, and its role is likely to increase in the future. Thus, it is paramount for clinicians to understand these approaches, gain facility with interpreting ML results, and learn how to assess algorithm performance.

OBJECTIVE: To provide an overview of ML, present its role in acute stroke imaging, discuss methods to evaluate algorithms, and then provide an assessment of existing approaches.

METHODS: In this review, we give an overview of ML techniques commonly used in medical imaging analysis and methods to evaluate performance. …

Alphaviruses Detected In Mosquitoes In The North-Eastern Regions Of South Africa, 2014 To 2018, Milehna M Guarido, Isabel Fourie, Kgothatso Meno, Adriano Mendes, Megan A Riddin, Caitlin Macintyre, Sontaga Manyana, Todd Johnson, Maarten Schrama, Erin E Gorsich, Basil D Brooke, Antonio Paulo G Almeida, Marietjie Venter

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The prevalence and distribution of African alphaviruses such as chikungunya have increased in recent years. Therefore, a better understanding of the local distribution of alphaviruses in vectors across the African continent is important. Here, entomological surveillance was performed from 2014 to 2018 at selected sites in north-eastern parts of South Africa where alphaviruses have been identified during outbreaks in humans and animals in the past. Mosquitoes were collected using a net, CDC-light, and BG-traps. An alphavirus genus-specific nested RT-PCR was used for screening, and positive pools were confirmed by sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. We collected 64,603 mosquitoes from 11 genera, …

A Multicenter Study Of Clinical Impact Of Variant Of Uncertain Significance Reclassification In Breast, Ovarian And Colorectal Cancer Susceptibility Genes, Sukh Makhnoon, Brooke Levin, Megan Ensinger, Kristin Mattie, Robert J Volk, Zhongming Zhao, Tito Mendoza, Sanjay Shete, Laila Samiian, Generosa Grana, Andrew Grainger, Banu Arun, Brian H Shirts, Susan K Peterson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Clinical interpretation of genetic test results is complicated by variants of uncertain significance (VUS) that have an unknown impact on health but can be clarified through reclassification. There is little empirical evidence regarding VUS reclassification in oncology care settings, including the prevalence and outcomes of reclassification, and racial/ethnic differences.

METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of persons with and without a personal history of cancer carrying VUS (with or without an accompanying pathogenic or likely pathogenic [P/LP] variant) in breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancer predisposition genes seen at four cancer care settings (in Texas, Florida, Ohio, and New Jersey) …

Impact Of Us Preventive Services Task Force Lung Cancer Screening Update On Drivers Of Disparities In Screening Eligibility, Kristin G Maki, Rajesh Talluri, Iakovos Toumazis, Sanjay Shete, Robert J Volk

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BACKGROUND: In 2021, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) updated its recommendation to expand lung cancer screening (LCS) eligibility and mitigate disparities. Although this increased the number of non-White individuals who are eligible for LCS, the update's impact on drivers of disparities is less clear. This analysis focuses on racial disparities among Black individuals because members of this group disproportionately share late-stage lung cancer diagnoses, despite typically having a lower intensity smoking history compared to non-Hispanic White individuals.

METHODS: We used data from the National Health Interview Survey to examine the impact of the 2021 eligibility criteria on racial …