Digital Commons Network^™

Meningioma Transcriptomic Landscape Demonstrates Novel Subtypes With Regional Associated Biology And Patient Outcome, H Nayanga Thirimanne, Damian Almiron-Bonnin, Nicholas Nuechterlein, Sonali Arora, Matt Jensen, Carolina A Parada, Chengxiang Qiu, Frank Szulzewsky, Collin W English, William C Chen, Philipp Sievers, Farshad Nassiri, Justin Z Wang, Tiemo J Klisch, Kenneth D Aldape, Akash J Patel, Patrick J Cimino, Gelareh Zadeh, Felix Sahm, David R Raleigh, Jay Shendure, Manuel Ferreira, Eric C Holland

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Meningiomas, although mostly benign, can be recurrent and fatal. World Health Organization (WHO) grading of the tumor does not always identify high-risk meningioma, and better characterizations of their aggressive biology are needed. To approach this problem, we combined 13 bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) datasets to create a dimension-reduced reference landscape of 1,298 meningiomas. The clinical and genomic metadata effectively correlated with landscape regions, which led to the identification of meningioma subtypes with specific biological signatures. The time to recurrence also correlated with the map location. Further, we developed an algorithm that maps new patients onto this landscape, where the nearest …

History Of Suicidal Behavior And Clozapine Prescribing Among People With Schizophrenia In China: A Cohort Study, Yi Yin, Chen Lin, Lijing Wei, Jinghui Tong, Junchao Huang, Baopeng Tian, Shuping Tan, Zhiren Wang, Fude Yang, Yongsheng Tong, Song Chen, L Elliot Hong, Yunlong Tan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Clozapine is an off-label drug used in most countries to prevent suicide in individuals with schizophrenia. However, few studies have reported real-world prescription practices. This study aimed to explore the association between a history of suicidal behavior and clozapine prescribing during eight weeks of hospitalization for individuals with early-stage schizophrenia.

METHODS: This observational cohort study used routine health data collected from a mental health hospital in Beijing, China. The study included 1057 inpatients who had schizophrenia onset within 3 years. History of suicidal behavior was coded from reviewing medical notes according to the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. Information …

Mycoplasmoides Genitalium Nucleic Acid Semi-Quantitation And Molecular Macrolide Resistance Detection Via Automated Assays: Gender And Specimen Source Considerations, Erik Munson, Josephine Moore, Trinity Krueger, Amanda Zapp, Stephen C Lavey, Kimber L Munson, Irene A Stafford, Brian Mustanski

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

A laboratory-developed test (LDT) using analyte-specific reagents has been optimized on a commercial platform to detect macrolide resistance-associated mutations (MRM) in 23S rRNA from Mycoplasmoides genitalium from primary clinical specimens. In this study, MRM-LDT was applied to a multi-specimen source study set. One thousand four hundred ninety-five primary specimens testing positive for M. genitalium by commercial transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) were initially titered by the TMA assay using serial 10-fold dilutions to semi-quantitate target nucleic acid burden. Primary specimens were then processed for MRM detection using the MRM-LDT. Findings were stratified by gender and specimen source. The mean log10 target nucleic …

Small-Molecule Inhibition Of Kras Through Conformational Selection, Bharti Manwani, Nivetha Brathaban, Abiya Baqai, Yashee Munshi, Hilda W Ahnstedt, Mengqi Zhang, Kajsa Arkelius, Ted Llera, Edilberto Amorim, Fanny M Elahi, Neel S Singhal

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

L1CAM-positive extracellular vesicles (L1EV) are an emerging biomarker that may better reflect ongoing neuronal damage than other blood-based biomarkers. The physiological roles and regulation of L1EVs and their small RNA cargoes following stroke is unknown. We sought to characterize L1EV small RNAs following stroke and assess L1EV RNA signatures for diagnosing stroke using weighted gene co-expression network analysis and random forest (RF) machine learning algorithms. Interestingly, small RNA sequencing of plasma L1EVs from patients with stroke and control patients (n = 28) identified micro(mi)RNAs known to be enriched in the brain. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) revealed small RNA …

The Male Gaze: Textual Analysis On Contemporary Shōnen Anime And How Its Female Characters Are Viewed, Sophia Mikaela A. King, Febe Faith R. Mendoza

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

With its extensive history, anime continues to create a massive impact all over the globe that would either make or break stereotypes, determining the progression of the particular genre of animation. A significant factor that affects said progression would be the oversexualization of female characters, especially in shōnen anime. Because of this problem, the researchers analyzed in their paper the common patterns of how female characters are portrayed in Assassination Classroom (2015), Kakegurui (2017), and Chainsaw Man (2022), implying the Male Gaze, a theory by Laura Mulvey that examines how movies impact viewers' values by reinforcing pre-existing societal perceptions through …

Tmprss2 Is A Tumor Suppressor And Its Downregulation Promotes Antitumor Immunity And Immunotherapy Response In Lung Adenocarcinoma, Zhixian Liu, Qiqi Lu, Zhilan Zhang, Qiushi Feng, Xiaosheng Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: TMPRSS2, a key molecule for SARS-CoV-2 invading human host cells, has an association with cancer. However, its association with lung cancer remains insufficiently unexplored.

Methods: In five bulk transcriptomics datasets, one single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) dataset and one proteomics dataset for lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), we explored associations between TMPRSS2 expression and immune signatures, tumor progression phenotypes, genomic features, and clinical prognosis in LUAD by the bioinformatics approach. Furthermore, we performed experimental validation of the bioinformatics findings.

Results: TMPRSS2 expression levels correlated negatively with the enrichment levels of both immune-stimulatory and immune-inhibitory signatures, while they correlated positively with the ratios …

Comparing Child Word Associations To Adult Associative Norms: Evidence For Child-Specific Associations With A Strong Priming Effect In 3-Year-Olds, Nadine Fitzpatrick, Caroline Floccia

School of Psychology

Investigating how infants first establish relationships between words is a necessary step towards understanding how an interconnected network of semantic relationships develops in the adult lexical-semantic system. Stimuli selection for these child studies is critical since words must be both familiar and highly imageable. However, there has been a reliance on adult word association norms to inform stimuli selection in English infant studies to date, as no resource currently exists for child-specific word associations. We present three experiments that explore the strength of word–word relationships in 3-year-olds. Experiment 1 collected children’s word associations (WA) (N = 150; female = 84, …

Echocardiogram By Apical-Subcostal Protocol In Prone Position During Invasive Mechanical Ventilation In Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, César Del Castillo, Fernando Verdugo, Franco Appiani, Francisca Yáñez, Camila Bontá, Carlos Torres-Herrera, Angela Garcia, Zorba Blázquez-Bermejo, Javier Castrodeza, Daniel Requena, Andreina Rodríguez, Arquimedes Silvio, Agustín Gatica, Arnulfo Begazo, Mario Alfaro

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

AIMS: To evaluate the feasibility of a transthoracic echocardiogram using an apical-subcostal protocol in invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) and prone position.

METHODS: Prospective study of adults who required a prone position during IMV. A pillow was placed only under the left hemithorax in the prone position to elevate and ease the apical and subcostal windows. A critical care cardiologist (prone group) acquired and evaluated the images using the apical-subcostal protocol. Besides, we used ambulatory echocardiograms performed as a comparative group (supine group).

RESULTS: 86 patients were included, 43 in the prone and 43 in the supine. In the prone group, …

Morbidity And Mortality Following Hiatal Hernia Repair In Geriatric Patients: A Multicenter Research Network Study, Sunjay S. Kumar, Martina Rama, Scott Koeneman, Sami Tannouri, Talar Tatarian, Francesco Palazzo

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Hiatal hernia is a common surgical pathology. Such hernias can be found incidentally and patients may opt for an initial nonoperative approach though many will pursue surgery after symptom progression. Data on the effects of age on the outcomes of hiatal hernia repair may help inform this decision-making process.

METHODS: The TriNetX database was queried for all adult patients undergoing hiatal hernia repair from 2000 to 2023. Patients were divided into elective and emergent cohorts on the basis of diagnosis codes indicating obstruction or gangrene. Patients aged 80-89 were compared against those aged 65-79 in unadjusted analysis. Logistic regression …

Self-Swabbing Versus Assisted Swabbing For Viral Detection By Qrt-Pcr: The Experience From Sars-Cov-2 Based On A Meta-Analysis Of Six Prospectively Designed Evaluations Conducted In A Uk Setting, Tom Fowler, David Chapman, Matthias E Futschik, Sarah A Tunkel, Edward Blandford, Elena Turek, Olumide Kolade, Sergio Souza Da Cunha, Andrew Dodgson, Paul Klapper, Malur Sudhanva, Lindsey Davies, Sue Hill, Susan Hopkins, Tim Peto

School of Biomedical Sciences

PURPOSE: In April 2020, the UK Government implemented NHS Test and Trace to provide SARS-CoV-2 quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) testing for the public, with nose-and-throat swabbing for samples performed by trained staff. Self-swabbing (SS) would allow rapid scale-up of testing capacity and access. Six studies were undertaken to determine whether SS was as effective for detecting SARS-CoV-2 as swabbing performed by trained staff.

METHODS: Six prospective studies were conducted between April-October 2020, using six swab/media combinations. Differences between assisted swabbing (AS) and SS were evaluated for concordance, positivity, sensitivity, cycle threshold (Ct) values and void rates. Statistical …

Folate As A Potential Treatment For Lethal Ventricular Arrhythmias In Tango2-Deficiency Disorder, Weiyi Xu, Yingqiong Cao, Sara B Stephens, Maria Jose Arredondo, Yifan Chen, William Perez, Liang Sun, Andy C Yu, Jean J Kim, Seema R Lalani, Na Li, Frank T Horrigan, Francisco Altamirano, Xander Ht Wehrens, Christina Y Miyake, Lilei Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

TANGO2-deficiency disorder (TDD) is an autosomal-recessive genetic disease caused by biallelic loss-of-function variants in the TANGO2 gene. TDD-associated cardiac arrhythmias are recalcitrant to standard antiarrhythmic medications and constitute the leading cause of death. Disease modeling for TDD has been primarily carried out using human dermal fibroblast and, more recently, in Drosophila by multiple research groups. No human cardiomyocyte system has been reported, which greatly hinders the investigation and understanding of TDD-associated arrhythmias. Here, we established potentially novel patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell differentiated cardiomyocyte (iPSC-CM) models that recapitulate key electrophysiological abnormalities in TDD. These electrophysiological abnormalities were rescued in iPSC-CMs …

Pm25, Vegetation Density, And Childhood Cancer: A Case-Control Registry-Based Study From Texas 1995–2011, Lindsay A Williams, David Haynes, Jeannette M Sample, Zhanni Lu, Ali Hossaini, Laura A Mcguinn, Thanh T Hoang, Philip J Lupo, Michael E Scheurer

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: Air pollution is positively associated with some childhood cancers, whereas greenness is inversely associated with some adult cancers. The interplay between air pollution and greenness in childhood cancer etiology is unclear. We estimated the association between early-life air pollution and greenness exposure and childhood cancer in Texas (1995 to 2011).

Methods: We included 6101 cancer cases and 109 762 controls (aged 0 to 16 years). We linked residential birth address to census tract annual average fine particulate matter < 2.5 µg/m³ (PM2.5) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). We estimated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) between PM2.5/NDVI interquartile range increases and cancer. We assessed statistical interaction between PM2.5 and NDVI (likelihood ratio tests).

Results: Increasing residential early-life PM2.5 exposure was associated with all childhood cancers (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.06 to 1.15), …

Investigating The Association Between Metabolic Syndrome Conditions And Perinatal Mental Illness: A National Administrative Claims Study, Karishma Chhabria, Sudhakar Selvaraj, Jerrie Refuerzo, Chau Truong, Cecilia Ganduglia Cazaban

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Although the association between mental disorder and metabolic syndrome as a bidirectional relationship has been demonstrated, there is little knowledge of the cumulative and individual effect of these conditions on peripartum mental health. This study aims to investigate the association between metabolic syndrome conditions (MetS-C) and maternal mental illness in the perinatal period, while exploring time to incident mental disorder diagnosis in postpartum women.

METHODS: This observational study identified perinatal women continuously enrolled 1 year prior to and 1 year post-delivery using Optum's de-identified Clinformatics® Data Mart Database (CDM) from 2014 to 2019 with MetS-C i.e. obesity, diabetes, high …

Cost-Effectiveness And Threshold Analysis Of Deep Brain Stimulation Vs Treatment-As-Usual For Treatment-Resistant Depression, Katherine E Kabotyanski, Ricardo A Najera, Garrett P Banks, Himanshu Sharma, Nicole R Provenza, Benjamin Y Hayden, Sanjay J Mathew, Sameer A Sheth

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) affects approximately 2.8 million people in the U.S. with estimated annual healthcare costs of $43.8 billion. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is currently an investigational intervention for TRD. We used a decision-analytic model to compare cost-effectiveness of DBS to treatment-as-usual (TAU) for TRD. Because this therapy is not FDA approved or in common use, our goal was to establish an effectiveness threshold that trials would need to demonstrate for this therapy to be cost-effective. Remission and complication rates were determined from review of relevant studies. We used published utility scores to reflect quality of life after treatment. Medicare …

Long-Term Survival Follow-Up For Tebentafusp In Previously Treated Metastatic Uveal Melanoma, Joseph Sacco, Richard Carvajal, Marcus Butler, Alexander N Shoushtari, Jessica Hassel, Alexandra Ikeguchi, Leonel Hernandez-Aya, Paul Nathan, Omid Hamid, Josep Piulats, Matthew Rioth, Douglas B Johnson, Jason Luke, Enrique Espinosa, Serge Leyvraz, Laura Collins, Chris Holland, Takami Sato

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Tebentafusp, a bispecific (gp100×CD3) ImmTAC, significantly improved overall survival (OS) outcomes for HLA-A*02:01+ adult patients with untreated metastatic uveal melanoma (mUM) and showed promising survival in previously treated mUM with 1-year OS of 62% in the primary analysis of study IMCgp100-102. Here we report long-term outcomes from this phase 1/2 study in pretreated mUM.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with previously treated mUM received tebentafusp weekly intravenous at 20 µg dose 1, 30 µg dose 2 and either 54, 64, 68, or 73 µg (phase 1) or 68 µg (phase 2) dose 3+. The primary objective was overall response rate. …

A Multilevel Intervention To Promote Hpv Vaccination Among Young Adults In Texas: Protocol For A Randomized Controlled Trial, Qian Lu, Lenna Dawkins-Moultin, Dalnim Cho, Naomi Q P Tan, Suellen Hopfer, Yisheng Li, Lois Ramondetta, Yusi Xu, Di Lun, Minxing Chen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections can cause cancers of the cervix, vagina, vulva, penis, anus, and oropharynx. The most recently approved HPV vaccine, Gardasil-9, protects against HPV infection and can prevent HPV-associated invasive cancers. However, Gardasil-9 is one of the most underused vaccines in the US today. Young adults are at risk for HPV infection, but many are not vaccinated. This study uses a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test an innovative multilevel intervention to increase HPV vaccination rates among young adults. In this paper, we describe the research protocol.

METHODS: The study uses a two by three factorial design. …

Clinical Practice Guidelines For The Care Of Girls And Women With Turner Syndrome, Claus H Gravholt, Niels H Andersen, Sophie Christin-Maitre, Shanlee M Davis, Anthonie Duijnhouwer, Aneta Gawlik, Andrea T Maciel-Guerra, Iris Gutmark-Little, Kathrin Fleischer, David Hong, Karen O Klein, Siddharth K Prakash, Roopa Kanakatti Shankar, David E Sandberg, Theo C J Sas, Anne Skakkebæk, Kirstine Stochholm, Janielle A Van Der Velden, International Turner Syndrome Consensus Group, Philippe F Backeljauw

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Turner syndrome (TS) affects 50 per 100 000 females. TS affects multiple organs through all stages of life, necessitating multidisciplinary care. This guideline extends previous ones and includes important new advances, within diagnostics and genetics, estrogen treatment, fertility, co-morbidities, and neurocognition and neuropsychology. Exploratory meetings were held in 2021 in Europe and United States culminating with a consensus meeting in Aarhus, Denmark in June 2023. Prior to this, eight groups addressed important areas in TS care: (1) diagnosis and genetics, (2) growth, (3) puberty and estrogen treatment, (4) cardiovascular health, (5) transition, (6) fertility assessment, monitoring, and counselling, (7) health …

Enhancing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Patient Assessment: Leveraging Natural Language Processing For Research Of Domain Criteria Identification Using Electronic Medical Records, Oshin Miranda, Sophie Marie Kiehl, Xiguang Qi, M Daniel Brannock, Thomas Kosten, Neal David Ryan, Levent Kirisci, Yanshan Wang, Lirong Wang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Extracting research of domain criteria (RDoC) from high-risk populations like those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is crucial for positive mental health improvements and policy enhancements. The intricacies of collecting, integrating, and effectively leveraging clinical notes for this purpose introduce complexities.

Methods: In our study, we created a natural language processing (NLP) workflow to analyze electronic medical record (EMR) data and identify and extract research of domain criteria using a pre-trained transformer-based natural language model, all-mpnet-base-v2. We subsequently built dictionaries from 100,000 clinical notes and analyzed 5.67 million clinical notes from 38,807 PTSD patients from the University of Pittsburgh …

Teen Pregnancy Involvement Among African, Caribbean And Black Adolescent Boys And Girls: A Scoping Review Protocol, Emmanuela Ojukwu, Eunice Bawafaa, Emily Mckay, Harsimran Grewal, Sara Afsah, Shivangi Singh, Elizabeth Saewyc

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate the incidence, associated factors and interventions to address teen pregnancy involvement (TPI) among African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) adolescents in North America.

DESIGN: We conducted a scoping review of the literature, guided by the social-ecological model.

DATA SOURCES: Studies were retrieved from databases such as Ovid Medline, Ovid Embase, CINAHL, CAB Direct and Google Scholar and imported into COVIDENCE for screening.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: The Joanna Briggs Institute scoping reviews protocol guided the establishment of eligibility criteria. Included studies focused on rates, associated factors and interventions related to TPI among ACB boys and girls aged …

Postoperative Bioactive Adrenomedullin Is Associated With The Onset Of Ards And Adverse Outcomes In Patients Undergoing Open Thoracoabdominal Aortic Surgery, Panagiotis Doukas, Oliver Hartmann, Jelle Frankort, Birte Arlt, Hanif Krabbe, Michael Johan Jacobs, Andreas Greiner, Jan Paul Frese, Alexander Gombert

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cytokine-mediated systemic inflammation after open thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repairs plays a pivotal role in disrupting circulatory homeostasis, potentially leading to organ dysfunction. The bioactive form of adrenomedullin (bio-ADM) is a peptide hormone with immunomodulatory and vasomotor effects, making it a potential diagnostic agent in these cases. This retrospective, bicentric study, conducted between January 2019 and December 2022, recruited 36 elective open TAAA repair patients in two German centres. Serum and plasma samples were collected at multiple time points to measure bio-ADM levels. The primary objective was to evaluate the association of bio-ADM levels with the onset of acute respiratory …

Well-Child Visits For Early Detection And Management Of Maternal Postpartum Hypertensive Disorders, Farah H Amro, Kim C Smith, Syed S Hashmi, Michelle S Barratt, Rachel Carlson, Kristen Mariah Sankey, Michal Fishel Bartal, Sean C Blackwell, Suneet P Chauhan, Baha M Sibai

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: Innovative approaches are needed to address the increasing rate of postpartum morbidity and mortality associated with hypertensive disorders.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether assessing maternal blood pressure (BP) and associated symptoms at time of well-child visits is associated with increased detection of postpartum preeclampsia and need for hospitalization for medical management.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This is a pre-post quality improvement (QI) study. Individuals who attended the well-child visits between preimplementation (December 2017 to December 2018) were compared with individuals who enrolled after the implementation of the QI program (March 2019 to December 2019). Individuals were enrolled at an academic …

Ketamine Vs Electroconvulsive Therapy For Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Secondary Analysis Of A Randomized Clinical Trial, Manish Kumar Jha, Samuel T Wilkinson, Kamini Krishnan, Katherine A Collins, Gerard Sanacora, James Murrough, Fernando Goes, Murat Altinay, Amy Aloysi, Ali Asghar-Ali, Brian Barnett, Lee Chang, Sara Costi, Donald Malone, Sina Nikayin, Steven E Nissen, Robert Ostroff, Irving Reti, Kathy Wolski, Dong Wang, Bo Hu, Sanjay J Mathew, Amit Anand

Staff and Researcher Publications

IMPORTANCE: The ELEKT-D: Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) vs Ketamine in Patients With Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) (ELEKT-D) trial demonstrated noninferiority of intravenous ketamine vs ECT for nonpsychotic TRD. Clinical features that can guide selection of ketamine vs ECT may inform shared decision-making for patients with TRD.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether selected clinical features were associated with differential improvement with ketamine vs ECT.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This secondary analysis of an open-label noninferiority randomized clinical trial was a multicenter study conducted at 5 US academic medical centers from April 7, 2017, to November 11, 2022. Analyses for this study, which were …

Combining Novel Thrombectomy Devices For Intracardiac Mass Extraction: The Kong And Godzilla Of Mass Extraction, Hussam Al Hennawi, Ahmad Abulshamat, Ali Sheikh, Hisham Qandeel, Kiril Zakharov, Appa Bandi, Mohammed Qintar

Abington Jefferson Health Papers

Transcatheter extraction of an intracardiac mass is a newer approach that may lead to nonsurgical treatment of complex cardiac masses. We present a case in which thrombectomy devices were combined to extract a right atrial mass, which highlights new frontiers in the treatment of complex transcatheter mass extraction. The combined use of two transcatheter thrombectomy devices (Kong and Godzilla) may provide a powerful addition to the existing armamentarium.

Impact Of Simulation Exercises On Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy Surgical Outcomes: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Tricia Giglio-Ayers, Fabrizio Zullo, Alicia Hersey, Indira Ranaweera, Lara Ouellette, Daniele Di Mascio, Christine E Foley, Stephen M Wagner

Library Staff Publications

BACKGROUND: As resources into gynecological surgical simulation training increase, research showing an association with improved clinical outcomes is needed.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between surgical simulation training for total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) and rates of intraoperative vascular/visceral injury (primary outcome) and operative time.

SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched Medline OVID, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane, and CINAHL databases from the inception of each database to April 5, 2022. Selection Critera: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or cohort studies of any size published in English prior to April 4, 2022.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: The summary measures were reported as relative risks …

Riluzole For Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: A Secondary Analysis Of The Csm-Protect Trial, Michael G. Fehlings, Karlo M. Pedro, Mohammed Ali Alvi, Jetan H. Badhiwala, Henry Ahn, H. Francis Farhadi, Christopher I. Shaffrey, Ahmad Nassr, Praveen Mummaneni, Paul M. Arnold, W. Bradley Jacobs, K. Daniel Riew, Michael Kelly, Darrel S. Brodke, Alex Vaccaro, Alan Hilibrand, Jason Wilson, James Harrop, S. Tim Yoon, Kee D. Kim, Daryl R. Fourney, Carlo Santaguida, Eric M. Massicotte, Peng Huang

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Faculty Papers

IMPORTANCE: The modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association (mJOA) scale is the most common scale used to represent outcomes of degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM); however, it lacks consideration for neck pain scores and neglects the multidimensional aspect of recovery after surgery.

OBJECTIVE: To use a global statistical approach that incorporates assessments of multiple outcomes to reassess the efficacy of riluzole in patients undergoing spinal surgery for DCM.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This was a secondary analysis of prespecified secondary end points within the Efficacy of Riluzole in Surgical Treatment for Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy (CSM-PROTECT) trial, a multicenter, double-blind, phase 3 randomized clinical …

The Aging Lacrimal Gland Of Female C57bl/6j Mice Exhibits Multinucleate Macrophage Infiltration Associated With Lipid Dysregulation, Minchang Choi, Cindy Toscano, Maria C Edman, Cintia S De Paiva, Sarah F Hamm-Alvarez

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

PURPOSE: Loss of function of the lacrimal gland (LG), which produces the aqueous tear film, is implicated in age-related dry eye. To better understand this deterioration, we evaluated changes in lipid metabolism and inflammation in LGs from an aging model.

METHODS: LG sections from female C57BL/6J mice of different ages (young, 2-3 months; intermediate, 10-14 months; old, ≥24 months) were stained with Oil Red-O or Toluidine blue to detect lipids. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis and western blotting of LG lysates determined differences in the expression of genes and proteins related to lipid metabolism. A photobleaching protocol to …

Methylthioadenosine Phosphorylase Genomic Loss In Advanced Gastrointestinal Cancers, Natalie Y L Ngoi, Tin-Yun Tang, Catia F Gaspar, Dean C Pavlick, Gregory M Buchold, Emma L Scholefield, Vamsi Parimi, Richard S P Huang, Tyler Janovitz, Natalie Danziger, Mia A Levy, Shubham Pant, Anaemy Danner De Armas, David Kumpula, Jeffrey S Ross, Milind Javle, Jordi Rodon Ahnert

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: One of the most common sporadic homozygous deletions in cancers is 9p21 loss, which includes the genes methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP), CDKN2A, and CDKN2B, and has been correlated with worsened outcomes and immunotherapy resistance. MTAP-loss is a developing drug target through synthetic lethality with MAT2A and PMRT5 inhibitors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence and genomic landscape of MTAP-loss in advanced gastrointestinal (GI) tumors and investigate its role as a prognostic biomarker.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed next-generation sequencing and comparative genomic and clinical analysis on an extensive cohort of 64 860 tumors comprising 5 GI …

Cell-Free Dna Concentration As A Biomarker Of Response And Recurrence In Her2-Negative Breast Cancer Receiving Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy, Mark Jesus M Magbanua, Ziad Ahmed, Rosalyn W Sayaman, Lamorna Brown Swigart, Gillian L Hirst, Christina Yau, Denise M Wolf, Wen Li, Amy L Delson, Jane Perlmutter, Paula Pohlmann, W Fraser Symmans, Douglas Yee, Nola M Hylton, Laura J Esserman, Angela M Demichele, Hope S Rugo, Laura J Van 'T Veer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: We previously demonstrated the clinical significance of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in patients with HER2-negative breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Here, we compared its predictive and prognostic value with cell-free DNA (cfDNA) concentration measured in the same samples from the same patients.

Experimental design: 145 patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive/HER2-negative and 138 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) with ctDNA data from a previous study were included in the analysis. Associations of serial cfDNA concentration with residual cancer burden (RCB) and distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS) were examined.

Results: In TNBC, we observed a modest negative correlation between cfDNA concentration 3 …

Delays To Antibiotics In The Emergency Department And Risk Of Mortality In Children With Sepsis, Roni D Lane, Troy Richardson, Halden F Scott, Raina M Paul, Fran Balamuth, Matthew A Eisenberg, Ruth Riggs, W Charles Huskins, Christopher M Horvat, Grant E Keeney, Leslie A Hueschen, Justin M Lockwood, Vishal Gunnala, Bryan P Mckee, Nikhil Patankar, Venessa Lynn Pinto, Amanda M Sebring, Matthew P Sharron, Jennifer Treseler, Jennifer J Wilkes, Jennifer K Workman

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

IMPORTANCE: Pediatric consensus guidelines recommend antibiotic administration within 1 hour for septic shock and within 3 hours for sepsis without shock. Limited studies exist identifying a specific time past which delays in antibiotic administration are associated with worse outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To determine a time point for antibiotic administration that is associated with increased risk of mortality among pediatric patients with sepsis.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This retrospective cohort study used data from 51 US children's hospitals in the Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes collaborative. Participants included patients aged 29 days to less than 18 years with sepsis recognized within 1 hour …

Ectoine Enhances Mucin Production Via Restoring Il-13/Ifn-Γ Balance In A Murine Dry Eye Model, Na Lin, Xin Chen, Haixia Liu, Ning Gao, Zhao Liu, Jin Li, Stephen C Pflugfelder, De-Quan Li

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore protective effects and potential mechanism of ectoine, a natural osmoprotectant, on ocular surface mucin production in dry eye disease.

METHODS: A dry eye model was established in C57BL/6 mice exposed to desiccating stress (DS) with untreated (UT) mice as controls. DS mice were topically treated with 2.0% ectoine or PBS vehicle. Corneal epithelial defects were assessed by Oregon Green Dextran (OGD) fluorescent staining. Conjunctival goblet cells, ocular mucins, and T help (Th) cytokines were evaluated by immunofluorescent staining or ELISA, and RT-qPCR.

RESULTS: Compared with UT mice, corneal epithelial defects were detected as strong …