Joycehorn0560
Background Among severely immunosuppressed patients resistant or refractory cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis is not uncommon, and is potentially blinding in the affected eye. Immunotherapy using CMV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) is an emerging and promising alternative for the control of resistant or refractory CMV retinitis. However, highly purified CMV-CTLs are still not available in the majority of medical institutions in China because the generation of CMV-CTLs is labor intensive, time-consuming and expensive.Purpose This letter describes the clinical responses to a simplified CMV-CTL immunotherapy aimed at controlling drug-resistant CMV retinitis in two immunodeficient patients.Conclusions Our cases suggest that the simplified CMV-CTL immunotherapy offers a highly efficient and low-cost solution to drug-resistant CMV retinitis. This immunotherapy strategy targeting drug-resistant CMV retinitis is likely to be cost-effective in the context of a specific patient population.
To conduct a descriptive content analysis of normative documents on the role of research ethics committees (RECs) after the approval of clinical trial protocols. The question to be addressed is whether and to what extent normative documents support a monitoring role for RECs in the United States and the European Union.
A qualitative content analysis of 19 normative documents on clinical research as outlined by the International Compilation of Human Research Standards 2020 edition and other related documents for the EU and USA.
After the approval of research protocols, RECs' general role is to receive reports from researchers on the trials' progress. Additionally, RECs receive notifications of protocol amendments, deviations and, to a lesser extent, violations, which is the remit of the regulatory/competent authorities. RECs are expected to issue opinions on clinical trials' progress and give supplemental opinions/approval or withdraw/suspend/terminate previous favorable opinions on adverse events or safrotocol amendments, (c) adverse events, (d) protocol deviations, and (e) protocol violations. Although some international guidelines such as the Declaration of Helsinki emphasize the right to monitor, RECs' predominant activity is document review. In the USA, RECs are authorized to issue approvals and terminate/suspend previously issued approvals. However, in the EU, the approach is to relegate to member states to decide the extent of legislative power they wish to give to the RECs. The REC's opinion on the end of trial report is identified as an area for further exploration.Purpose This study investigated the quality of YouTube videos addressing multifocal intraocular lens (IOL) as educational resources.Materials and Methods An online search of YouTube was performed for the terms "multifocal lens implants" and "multifocal iol". A total of 339 videos were recorded. After these videos were investigated, the final remaining 140 videos were enrolled in the study. All videos were evaluated in terms of their DISCERN, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and Global Quality (GQ) scores by two independent experienced ophthalmologists.Results The median DISCERN score was 33 (poor quality), JAMA score was 1.25 (lowest quality), and GQ score was 2 (poor quality). Of the 140 videos, 80 videos (57.1%) were uploaded by physicians and another 60 videos (42.9%) were uploaded by non-physicians. There was no statistically significant difference in general characteristics of the videos between the physicians and non-physicians groups. Also, their mean DISCERN, JAMA and GQ scores were similar between the groups (p = .101, p = .441 and p = .209, respectively).Conclusion Our findings suggest that the content of YouTube videos regarding multifocal IOLs is of generally poor quality and is not adequately educational for patients. Nevertheless, to ensure patients' access to accurate medical information, we believe that the content and reliability of medical information obtained from online videos should be examined by healthcare specialists from the viewpoint of patients.Childhood maltreatment appears to increase the risk for eating disorders (EDs). The current study examined potential moderating factors (i.e., self-discrepancy and negative self-directed style), which may increase or decrease the impact of maltreatment (i.e., emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse) on later ED symptoms. One hundred seven men and women with binge-eating disorder (BED) completed semi-structured interviews and questionnaires assessing childhood maltreatment, self-discrepancy, negative self-directed style, and ED pathology. Linear regression was used to examine the moderating role of self-discrepancy and negative self-directed style in the associations between each type of abuse and level of ED severity. Tebipenem Pivoxil manufacturer Actualought self-discrepancy (i.e., the difference between one's self and who one believes they ought to be) moderated the relationships between ED pathology and emotional abuse (β =.26 p =.007), as well as physical abuse (β =.23, p =.02). Results suggest that the relationship between childhood abuse (i.e., emotional abuse, physical abuse) and ED pathology may be stronger for those with higher levels of actualought self-discrepancy. Further clarification of the relationships between actualought self-discrepancy and distinct forms of childhood abuse is needed, as well as intervention studies examining whether targeting actualought self-discrepancy provides an additional benefit for trauma-exposed individuals with BED.Purpose/Aim Our study aims to evaluate corneal subbasal nerve plexus morphology by in vivo corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients and to explore its potential ability to distinguish between MS patients and healthy subjects.Materials and methods Cross-sectional study, including 60 MS patients and 22 healthy subjects. Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) was used to assess neurological disability. All participants underwent full ophthalmology evaluation, CCM and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Corneal nerve fibre density (CNFD), branch density (CNBD), fibre length (CNFL) and fibre tortuosity (CNFT) were analysed. Generalized additive regression models were used to analyse the data.Results Compared to controls, MS patients had lower CNFD, CNBD and CNFL (p 2.5 (-2.06 mm/mm2; 95%CI -3.84 to -0.28; p = .027 and -8.70 branches/mm2; 95%CI -14.69 to -2.71; p = .006, respectively). An optic neuritis (ON) history did not influence CCM parameters.Conclusions Our results confirm CCM parameters' potential to differentiate MS patients from healthy subjects, not being influenced by a previous ON history.