Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Survival Of Veterans Treated With Enzalutamide And Abiraterone For Metastatic Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer Based On Comorbid Diseases, Martin W Schoen, Kenneth R Carson, Seth A Eisen, Charles L Bennett, Suhong Luo, Melissa A Reimers, Eric M Knoche, Alison L Whitmer, Yan Yan, Bettina F Drake, Kristen M Sanfilippo

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Comorbid diseases influence patient outcomes, yet little is known about how comorbidities interact with treatments for metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). No head-to-head trials have compared the efficacy of abiraterone and enzalutamide - oral androgen-receptor targeted agents (ARTAs) for mCRPC. In patients with comorbid disease, outcomes with ARTAs may differ due to disparate mechanisms of action, adverse events, and drug interactions.

METHODS: Retrospective observational study of US veterans initiating treatment for mCRPC with abiraterone or enzalutamide between September 2014 and June 2017. Treatment duration and overall survival (OS) was compared based on age and comorbid diseases. The association between …

The Use Of Individual And Multilevel Data In The Development Of A Risk Prediction Model To Predict Patients' Likelihood Of Completing Colorectal Cancer Screening, Amanda F Petrik, Eric S Johnson, Rajasekhara Mummadi, Matthew Slaughter, Gloria D Coronado, Sunny C Lin, Lucy Savitz, Neal Wallace

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Promotion of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening can be expensive and unnecessary for many patients. The use of predictive analytics promises to help health systems target the right services to the right patients at the right time while improving population health. Multilevel data at the interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy levels, is rarely considered in clinical decision making but may be used to improve CRC screening risk prediction. We compared the effectiveness of a CRC screening risk prediction model that uses multilevel data with a more conventional model that uses only individual patient data. We used a retrospective cohort to ascertain …

Gut Microbiota Induces Weight Gain And Inflammation In The Gut And Adipose Tissue Independent Of Manipulations In Diet, Genetics, And Immune Development, Devesha H Kulkarni, Brigida Rusconi, Alexandria N Floyd, Elisabeth L Joyce, Khushi B Talati, Hrishi Kousik, Dereck Alleyne, Dalia L Harris, Lorena Garnica, Ryan Mcdonough, Shay S Bidani, Hrishikesh S Kulkarni, Elizabeth P Newberry, Keely G Mcdonald, Rodney D Newberry

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Obesity and the metabolic syndrome are complex disorders resulting from multiple factors including genetics, diet, activity, inflammation, and gut microbes. Animal studies have identified roles for each of these, however the contribution(s) specifically attributed to the gut microbiota remain unclear, as studies have used combinations of genetically altered mice, high fat diet, and/or colonization of germ-free mice, which have an underdeveloped immune system. We investigated the role(s) of the gut microbiota driving obesity and inflammation independent of manipulations in diet and genetics in mice with fully developed immune systems. We demonstrate that the human obese gut microbiota alone was sufficient …

Organ Aging Signatures In The Plasma Proteome Track Health And Disease, Hamilton Se-Hwee Oh, Yun Ju Sung, Lihua Wang, Jigyasha Timsina, Dan Western, Menghan Liu, Pat Kohlfeld, John Budde, Carlos Cruchaga, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Animal studies show aging varies between individuals as well as between organs within an individual

An "Off-The-Shelf" Cd2 Universal Car-T Therapy For T-Cell Malignancies, Jingyu Xiang, Jessica M Devenport, Alun J Carter, Karl W Staser, Miriam Y Kim, Julie O' Neal, Julie K Ritchey, Michael P Rettig, Feng Gao, Garrett Rettig, Rolf Turk, Byung Ha Lee, Matthew L Cooper, John F Dipersio

2020-Current year OA Pubs

T-cell malignancies are associated with frequent relapse and high morbidity, which is partly due to the lack of effective or targeted treatment options. To broaden the use of CAR-T cells in pan T-cell malignancies, we developed an allogeneic "universal" CD2-targeting CAR-T cell (UCART2), in which the CD2 antigen is deleted to prevent fratricide, and the T-cell receptor is removed to prevent GvHD. UCART2 demonstrated efficacy against T-ALL and CTCL and prolonged the survival of tumor-engrafted NSG mice in vivo. To evaluate the impact of CD2 on CAR-T function, we generated CD19 CAR-T cells (UCART19) with or without CD2 deletion, single-cell …

Associations Of Awake Prone Positioning-Induced Changes In Physiology With Intubation: An International Prospective Observational Study In Patients With Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure Related To Covid-19, Luis Morales-Quinteros, Raffaele Scala, João Manoel Silva, Antonio Leidi, Alexandre Leszek, Rodrigo Vazquez-Guillamet, Sergi Pascual, Ary Serpa-Neto, Antonio Artigas, Marcus J Schultz

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Awake prone positioning has the potential to improve oxygenation and decrease respiratory rate, potentially reducing the need for intubation in patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. We investigated awake prone positioning-induced changes in oxygenation and respiratory rate, and the prognostic capacity for intubation in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

METHODS: International multicenter prospective observation study in critically ill adult patients with COVID-19 receiving supplemental oxygen. We collected data on oxygenation and respiratory rate at baseline, and at 1 h after being placed in prone positioning. The combined primary outcome was oxygenation and respiratory rate at 1 h. The secondary endpoint …

Droplet Digital Pcr For Oncogenic Kmt2a Fusion Detection, Andrew L Young, Hannah C Davis, Grant A Challen

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive blood cancer diagnosed in approximately 120,000 individuals worldwide each year. During treatment for AML, detecting residual disease is essential for prognostication and treatment decision-making. Currently, methods for detecting residual AML are limited to identifying approximately 1:100 to 1:1000 leukemic cells (morphology and DNA sequencing) or are difficult to implement (flow cytometry). AML arising after chemotherapy or radiation exposure is termed therapy-related AML (t-AML) and is exceptionally aggressive and treatment resistant. t-AML is often driven by oncogenic fusions that result from prior treatments that introduce double-strand DNA breaks. The most common t-AML-associated translocations affect …

Myeloid Lineage Switch Following Cd7-Targeted Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy In Relapsed/Refractory T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Ibrahim Aldoss, David Spencer, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Neurofibromin 1 Mutations Impair The Function Of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Microglia, Leonard D Kuhrt, Edyta Motta, Nirmeen Elmadany, Hannah Weidling, Raphaela Fritsche-Guenther, Ibrahim E Efe, Olivia Cobb, Jit Chatterjee, Lucy G Boggs, Marina Schnauß, Sebastian Diecke, Marcus Semtner, Corina Anastasaki, David H Gutmann, Helmut Kettenmann

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominant condition caused by germline mutations in the neurofibromin 1 (NF1) gene. Children with NF1 are prone to the development of multiple nervous system abnormalities, including autism and brain tumors, which could reflect the effect of NF1 mutation on microglia function. Using heterozygous Nf1-mutant mice, we previously demonstrated that impaired purinergic signaling underlies deficits in microglia process extension and phagocytosis in situ. To determine whether these abnormalities are also observed in human microglia in the setting of NF1, we leveraged an engineered isogenic series of human induced pluripotent stem cells to generate human …

Multi-Ancestry Study Of The Genetics Of Problematic Alcohol Use In Over 1 Million Individuals, Hang Zhou, Emma C Johnson, Pamela A F Madden, Andrew C Heath, Arpana Agrawal, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Problematic alcohol use (PAU), a trait that combines alcohol use disorder and alcohol-related problems assessed with a questionnaire, is a leading cause of death and morbidity worldwide. Here we conducted a large cross-ancestry meta-analysis of PAU in 1,079,947 individuals (European, N = 903,147; African, N = 122,571; Latin American, N = 38,962; East Asian, N = 13,551; and South Asian, N = 1,716 ancestries). We observed a high degree of cross-ancestral similarity in the genetic architecture of PAU and identified 110 independent risk variants in within- and cross-ancestry analyses. Cross-ancestry fine mapping improved the identification of likely causal variants. Prioritizing …

Idasanutlin And Navitoclax Induce Synergistic Apoptotic Cell Death In T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Kimberly B Johansson, Megan S Zimmerman, Iryna V Dmytrenko, Feng Gao, Daniel C Link

2020-Current year OA Pubs

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive hematologic malignancy in which activating mutations in the Notch pathway are thought to contribute to transformation, in part, by activating c-Myc. Increased c-Myc expression induces oncogenic stress that can trigger apoptosis through the MDM2-p53 tumor suppressor pathway. Since the great majority of T-ALL cases carry inactivating mutations upstream in this pathway but maintain wildtype MDM2 and TP53, we hypothesized that T-ALL would be selectively sensitive to MDM2 inhibition. Treatment with idasanutlin, an MDM2 inhibitor, induced only modest apoptosis in T-ALL cells but upregulated the pro-apoptotic BH3 domain genes BAX and BBC3, prompting …

Continuous Subcutaneous Foslevodopa/Foscarbidopa In Parkinson's Disease: Safety And Efficacy Results From A 12-Month, Single-Arm, Open-Label, Phase 3 Study, Jason Aldred, Susan R Criswell, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Foslevodopa/foscarbidopa, a soluble formulation of levodopa/carbidopa (LD/CD) prodrugs for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD), is administered as a 24-hour/day continuous subcutaneous infusion (CSCI) with a single infusion site. The efficacy and safety of foslevodopa/foscarbidopa versus oral immediate-release LD/CD was previously demonstrated in patients with PD in a 12-week, randomized, double-blind, phase 3 trial (NCT04380142). We report the results of a separate 52-week, open-label, phase 3 registrational trial (NCT03781167) that evaluated the safety/tolerability and efficacy of 24-hour/day foslevodopa/foscarbidopa CSCI in patients with advanced PD.

METHODS: Male and female patients with levodopa-responsive PD and ≥ 2.5 hours of "Off" time/day …

A Multisociety Delphi Consensus Statement On New Fatty Liver Disease Nomenclature, Mary E. Rinella, Samuel Klein, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The principal limitations of the terms NAFLD and NASH are the reliance on exclusionary confounder terms and the use of potentially stigmatising language. This study set out to determine if content experts and patient advocates were in favor of a change in nomenclature and/or definition. A modified Delphi process was led by three large pan-national liver associations. The consensus was defined a priori as a supermajority (67%) vote. An independent committee of experts external to the nomenclature process made the final recommendation on the acronym and its diagnostic criteria. A total of 236 panelists from 56 countries participated in 4 …

Patient And Hospital Characteristics Associated With The Interhospital Transfer Of Adult Patients With Sepsis, Uchenna R. Ofoma, Tierney J. Lanter, Elena Deych, Marin Kollef, Fei Wan, Karen E. Joynt Maddox

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: The interhospital transfer (IHT) of patients with sepsis to higher-capability hospitals may improve outcomes. Little is known about patient and hospital factors associated with sepsis IHT.

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated patterns of hospitalization and IHT and determined patient and hospital factors associated with the IHT of adult patients with sepsis.

DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 349,938 adult patients with sepsis at 329 nonfederal hospitals in California, 2018-2019.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: We evaluated patterns of admission and outward IHT between low sepsis-, intermediate sepsis-, and high sepsis-capability hospitals. We estimated odds of IHT using generalized …

Correlating Deep Learning-Based Automated Reference Kidney Histomorphometry With Patient Demographics And Creatinine, Nicholas Lucarelli, Brandon Ginley, Jarcy Zee, Sayat Mimar, Anindya S. Paul, Sanjay Jain, Seung Seok Han, Luis Rodrigues, Tezcan Ozrazgat-Baslanti, Michelle L. Wong, Girish Nadkarni, William L. Clapp, Kuang-Yu Jen, Pinaki Sarder

2020-Current year OA Pubs

KEY POINTS: The authors leverage the unique benefits of panoptic segmentation to perform the largest ever quantitation of reference kidney morphometry. Kidney features vary with age and sex; and glomeruli size may intricately link to creatinine, defying prior notions.

BACKGROUND: Reference histomorphometric data of healthy human kidneys are largely lacking because of laborious quantitation requirements. Correlating histomorphometric features with clinical parameters through machine learning approaches can provide valuable information about natural population variance. To this end, we leveraged deep learning (DL), computational image analysis, and feature analysis to associate the relationship of histomorphometry with patient age, sex, serum creatinine (SCr), …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Sakeholders' Preferences For Early-Stage Rectal Cancer Treatment, Merrill E. Rubens, Timothy P. Mayo, Radhika K. Smith, Sean C. Glasgow, Mary C. Politi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

As treatment options for patients with rectal cancer evolve, patients with early-stage rectal cancer may have a treatment choice between surgery and a trial of nonoperative management. Patients must consider the treatments' clinical tradeoffs alongside their personal goals and preferences. Shared decision-making (SDM) between patients and clinicians can improve decision quality when patients are faced with preference-sensitive care options. We interviewed 28 stakeholders (13 clinicians and 15 patients) to understand their perspectives on early-stage rectal cancer treatment decision-making. Clinicians included surgeons, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists who treat rectal cancer. Adult patients included those diagnosed with early-stage rectal cancer in …

Identification Of New 4-(6-Oxopyridazin-1-Yl)Benzenesulfonamides As Multi-Target Anti-Inflammatory Agents Targeting Carbonic Anhydrase, Cox-2 And 5-Lox Enzymes: Synthesis, Biological Evaluations And Modelling Insights, Waleed A Badawi, Mahmoud Rashed, Alessio Nocentini, Alessandro Bonardi, Mohammad M Abd-Alhaseeb, Sara T Al-Rashood, Giri Babu Veerakanellore, Taghreed A Majrashi, Eslam B Elkaeed, Bahaa Elgendy, Paola Gratteri, Claudiu T Supuran, Wagdy M Eldehna, Mohamed Elagawany

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Multiple inhibitions of CA, COX-2 and 5-LOX enzymes has been recognised as a useful strategy for the development of anti-inflammatory drugs that can avoid the disadvantages of using NSAIDs alone. Here, we report new pyridazine-based sulphonamides (

What Can The Plasma Proteome Tell Us About Platelets And (Vice Versa)?, Steven Bruzek, Marisol Betensky, Jorge Di Paola, Thomas Diacovo, Neil Goldenberg, Vera Ignjatovic

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Multi-omics approaches are being used increasingly to study physiological and pathophysiologic processes. Proteomics specifically focuses on the study of proteins as functional elements and key contributors to, and markers of the phenotype, as well as targets for diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Depending on the condition, the plasma proteome can mirror the platelet proteome, and hence play an important role in elucidating both physiologic and pathologic processes. In fact, both plasma and platelet protein signatures have been shown to be important in the setting of thrombosis-prone disease states such as atherosclerosis and cancer. Plasma and platelet proteomes are increasingly being studied …

Delayed-Enhancement Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging Detects Disease Progression In Patients With Mitral Valve Disease And Atrial Fibrillation, Tari-Ann Yates, Ramya Vijayakumar, Martha Mcgilvray, Ali J Khiabani, Nicholas Razo, Laurie Sinn, Matthew R Schill, Nassir Marrouche, Christian Zemlin, Ralph J Damiano Jr

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVES: The mechanism by which mitral valve (MV) disease leads to atrial fibrillation (AF) remains poorly understood. Delayed-enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (DE-MRI) has been used to assess left atrial (LA) fibrosis in patients with lone AF before catheter ablation; however, few studies have used DE-MRI to assess MV-induced LA fibrosis in patients with or without AF undergoing MV surgery.

METHODS: Between March 2018 and September 2022, 38 subjects were enrolled; 15 age-matched controls, 14 patients with lone mitral regurgitation (MR), and 9 patients with MR and AF (MR + AF). Indexed LA volume, total LA wall, and regional LA …

Intrinsically Disordered Regions Are Poised To Act As Sensors Of Cellular Chemistry, David Moses, Garrett M Ginell, Alex S Holehouse, Shahar Sukenik

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Intrinsically disordered proteins and protein regions (IDRs) are abundant in eukaryotic proteomes and play a wide variety of essential roles. Instead of folding into a stable structure, IDRs exist in an ensemble of interconverting conformations whose structure is biased by sequence-dependent interactions. The absence of a stable 3D structure, combined with high solvent accessibility, means that IDR conformational biases are inherently sensitive to changes in their environment. Here, we argue that IDRs are ideally poised to act as sensors and actuators of cellular physicochemistry. We review the physical principles that underlie IDR sensitivity, the molecular mechanisms that translate this sensitivity …

Risk Profiles And Incidence Of Cardiovascular Events Across Different Cancer Types, J D Mitchell, M Laurie, Q Xia, B Dreyfus, N Jain, A Jain, D Lane, D J Lenihan

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Cancer survivors are at increased risk for cardiovascular (CV) disease, although additional data are needed to better understand the incidence of CV events across different malignancies. This study sought to characterize the incidence of major adverse CV events [myocardial infarction, stroke, unstable angina (MACE), or heart failure (HF)] across multiple cancer types after cancer diagnosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients were identified from a USA-based administrative claims database who had index cancer diagnoses of breast, lung, prostate, melanoma, myeloma, kidney, colorectal, leukemia, or lymphoma between 2011 and 2019, with continuous enrollment for ≥12 months before diagnosis. Baseline CV risk factors …

Slc6a1 Variant Pathogenicity, Molecular Function And Phenotype: A Genetic And Clinical Analysis, Arthur Stefanski, Marwan Shinawi, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Genetic variants in the SLC6A1 gene can cause a broad phenotypic disease spectrum by altering the protein function. Thus, systematically curated clinically relevant genotype-phenotype associations are needed to understand the disease mechanism and improve therapeutic decision-making. We aggregated genetic and clinical data from 172 individuals with likely pathogenic/pathogenic (lp/p) SLC6A1 variants and functional data for 184 variants (14.1% lp/p). Clinical and functional data were available for a subset of 126 individuals. We explored the potential associations of variant positions on the GAT1 3D structure with variant pathogenicity, altered molecular function and phenotype severity using bioinformatic approaches. The GAT1 transmembrane domains …

Obesity And Outcomes Of Kawasaki Disease And Covid-19-Related Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children, Michael Khoury, William B Orr, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Obesity may affect the clinical course of Kawasaki disease (KD) in children and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the prevalence of obesity and associations with clinical outcomes in patients with KD or MIS-C.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In this cohort study, analysis of International Kawasaki Disease Registry (IKDR) data on contemporaneous patients was conducted between January 1, 2020, and July 31, 2022 (42 sites, 8 countries). Patients with MIS-C (defined by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria) and patients with KD (defined by American Heart Association criteria) were included. Patients with …

Enlarged Perivascular Spaces In Infancy And Autism Diagnosis, Cerebrospinal Fluid Volume, And Later Sleep Problems, Dea Garic, Robert C Mckinstry, Kelly N Botteron, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Perivascular spaces (PVS) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are essential components of the glymphatic system, regulating brain homeostasis and clearing neural waste throughout the lifespan. Enlarged PVS have been implicated in neurological disorders and sleep problems in adults, and excessive CSF volume has been reported in infants who develop autism. Enlarged PVS have not been sufficiently studied longitudinally in infancy or in relation to autism outcomes or CSF volume.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether enlarged PVS are more prevalent in infants who develop autism compared with controls and whether they are associated with trajectories of extra-axial CSF volume (EA-CSF) and sleep …

Lipidomic Analysis Of Porphyromonas Gingivalis Reveals Novel Glycerol Bisphosphoceramide, Phosphatidyl-, And Phosphoglycerol Dipeptide Lipid Families, Brian A Kleiboeker, Cheryl Frankfater, Mary E Davey, Fong-Fu Hsu

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Porphyromonas gingivalis, like other members of the phylum Bacteroidetes (synonym Bacteroidota), synthesizes several classes of dihydroceramides and peptidolipids. Using a similar strategy as that recently used to delimit the lipidome of its close relative Bacteroides fragilis, we applied linear ion trap multiple-stage mass spectrometry (linear ion trap MS

Local Treatment And Treatment-Related Adverse Effects Among Patients With Advanced Prostate Cancer, Saira Khan, Su-Hsin Chang, Mei Wang, Eric H Kim, Martin W Schoen, Carleena Rocuskie-Marker, Bettina F Drake

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Recent data suggest that local treatment with radical prostatectomy or radiation may improve survival outcomes in men with advanced prostate cancer. However, evidence is lacking on treatment-related adverse effects among men with advanced prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of local treatment on treatment-related adverse effects among men diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cohort study assessed men diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer (defined as T4, N1, and/or M1 prostate cancer) between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2013, with follow-up through December 31, 2021, who were treated at Veterans Health Administration medical centers. …

Endothelial Adam10 Utilization Defines A Molecular Pathway Of Vascular Injury In Mice With Bacterial Sepsis, Danielle N. Alfano, Mark J. Miller, Juliane Bubeck-Wardenburg

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The endothelium plays a critical role in the host response to infection and has been a focus of investigation in sepsis. While it is appreciated that intravascular thrombus formation, severe inflammation, and loss of endothelial integrity impair tissue oxygenation during sepsis, the precise molecular mechanisms that lead to endothelial injury remain poorly understood. We demonstrate here that endothelial ADAM10 was essential for the pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus sepsis, contributing to α-toxin-mediated (Hla-mediated) microvascular thrombus formation and lethality. As ADAM10 is essential for endothelial development and homeostasis, we examined whether other major human sepsis pathogens also rely on ADAM10-dependent pathways in …

Purification Of Modified Mammalian Actin Isoforms For In Vitro Reconstitution Assays, David J Kast, Silvia Jansen

2020-Current year OA Pubs

In vitro reconstitution assays using purified actin have greatly improved our understanding of cytoskeletal dynamics and their regulation by actin-binding proteins. However, early purification methods consisted of harsh conditions to obtain pure actin and often did not include correct maturation and obligate modification of the isolated actin monomers. Novel insights into the folding requirements and N-terminal processing of actin as well as a better understanding of the interaction of actin with monomer sequestering proteins such as DNaseI, profilin and gelsolin, led to the development of more gentle approaches to obtain pure recombinant actin isoforms with known obligate modifications. This review …

The Heart Of Rett Syndrome: A Quantitative Analysis Of Cardiac Repolarization, Michael P Collins, Mark C Johnson, Robin C Ryther, Judith L Weisenberg, Peter T Heydemann, Colleen M Buhrfiend, William A Scott, Dallas M M Armstrong, Haley M Kern, Hoang H Nguyen

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Rett syndrome (RTT) is a developmental encephalopathy disorder that is associated with a high incidence of sudden death presumably from cardiorespiratory etiologies. Electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities, such as prolonged heart-rate corrected QT (QTc) interval, are markers of cardiac repolarization and are associated with potentially lethal ventricular arrhythmias. This study investigates the cardiac repolarization characteristics of RTT patients, including QTc and T-wave morphology characteristics.

METHODS: A retrospective quantitative analysis on 110 RTT patients and 124 age and sex-matched healthy controls was conducted.

RESULTS: RTT patients had longer QTc, more abnormal T-wave morphology, and greater heterogeneity of cardiac repolarization parameters compared to …

Denoising Task-Related Fmri: Balancing Noise Reduction Against Signal Loss, M E Hoeppli, M A Garenfeld, C K Mortensen, H Nahman-Averbuch, C D King, R C Coghill

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Preprocessing fMRI data requires striking a fine balance between conserving signals of interest and removing noise. Typical steps of preprocessing include motion correction, slice timing correction, spatial smoothing, and high-pass filtering. However, these standard steps do not remove many sources of noise. Thus, noise-reduction techniques, for example, CompCor, FIX, and ICA-AROMA have been developed to further improve the ability to draw meaningful conclusions from the data. The ability of these techniques to minimize noise while conserving signals of interest has been tested almost exclusively in resting-state fMRI and, only rarely, in task-related fMRI. Application of noise-reduction techniques to task-related fMRI …