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These should be considered for specific exercise prescriptions. Future studies should concentrate on identifying the effects of exercise on the stiffness of specific tissues in a broader spectrum of pathological populations, in which a tendency for increased stiffness is observed.

Phantoms are often used to estimate the geometric accuracy in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, the distortions may differ between anatomical and phantom images. This study aimed to investigate the applicability of a phantom-based and a test-subject-based method in evaluating geometric distortion present in clinical head-imaging sequences.

We imaged a 3D-printed phantom and test subjects with two MRI scanners using two clinical head-imaging 3D sequences with varying patient-table positions and receiver bandwidths. The geometric distortions were evaluated through nonrigid registrations the displaced acquisitions were compared against the ideal isocenter positioning, and the varied bandwidth volumes against the volume with the highest bandwidth. The phantom acquisitions were also registered to a computed tomography scan.

Geometric distortion magnitudes increased with larger table displacements and were in good agreement between the phantom and test-subject acquisitions. The effect of increased distortions with decreasing receiver bandwidth was more prominent for test-subject acquisitions.

Presented results emphasize the sensitivity of the geometric accuracy to positioning and imaging parameters. Phantom limitations may become an issue with some sequence types, encouraging the use of anatomical images for evaluating the geometric accuracy.

Presented results emphasize the sensitivity of the geometric accuracy to positioning and imaging parameters. Phantom limitations may become an issue with some sequence types, encouraging the use of anatomical images for evaluating the geometric accuracy.

Estimating liver function reserve is essential for preoperative surgical planning and predicting post-hepatectomy complications in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We investigated hepatic viscoelasticity quantified by tomoelastography, a multifrequency magnetic resonance elastography technique, to predict liver function reserve.

One hundred fifty-six patients with suspected HCC (mean age, 60 ± 1years; 131 men) underwent preoperative tomoelastography examination between July 2020 and August 2021. Sixty-nine were included in the final analysis, and their 15-min indocyanine green retention rates (ICG-R15s) were obtained to determine liver function reserve. Tomoelastography quantified the shear wave speed (c, m/s), which represents stiffness, and loss angle (φ, rad), which represents fluidity. selleck Both were correlated with the ICG-R15. A prediction model based on logistic regression for major hepatectomy tolerance (ICG-R15 ≥ 14%) was established.

Patients were assigned to either the ICG-R15 < 14% (n = 50) or ICG-R15 ≥ 14% (n = 19) group. Liver c (r = 0.617) and φ (r = 0.517) were positively correlated with the ICG-R15 (both p < 0.001). At fibrosis stages F1-2, φ was positively correlated with the ICG-R15 (r = 0.528; p = 0.017), but c was not (p = 0.104). At stages F3-4, c (r = 0.642; p < 0.001) and φ (r = 0.377; p = 0.008) were both positively correlated with the ICG-R15. The optimal cutoffs of c and φ for predicting ICG-R15 ≥ 14% were 2.04m/s and 0.79rad, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was higher for c (0.892) than for φ (0.779; p = 0.045).

Liver stiffness and fluidity, quantified by tomoelastography, were correlated with liver function and may be used clinically to noninvasively assess liver function reserve and stratify treatments.

Liver stiffness and fluidity, quantified by tomoelastography, were correlated with liver function and may be used clinically to noninvasively assess liver function reserve and stratify treatments.

Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures are critical for assessing treatment benefit of anticancer treatments. Although PRO measures have been developed with the intention of capturing patient-centric concepts, a gap exists in understanding the patient experience with these tools. We characterized the experience of patients with metastatic breast cancer (mBC) with PRO measures in an oncology clinical trial setting to determine the importance, relevance, barriers, and facilitators for PRO completion.

The multicenter, qualitative design included semistructured interviews with 18 women with mBC who completed PRO measures in a clinical trial setting within 1year of screening. Interviews began with concept elicitation to understand symptom characterization, decision to participate in a clinical trial, pre-trial expectations, and thoughts on study-related questionnaires. Cognitive debriefing was conducted to determine if items in a commonly used PRO instrument were relevant to the patient experience. Qualitativer the course of the clinical trial period to be considered meaningful to respondents, and administration techniques also impact engagement. Robust communication strategies that socialize the intent, use, and results of PRO data may enrich the patient experience and support greater adherence to PRO completion in future studies.

PRO measures need to include content that is relevant to the patient experience over the course of the clinical trial period to be considered meaningful to respondents, and administration techniques also impact engagement. Robust communication strategies that socialize the intent, use, and results of PRO data may enrich the patient experience and support greater adherence to PRO completion in future studies.Selfish genetic elements (SGE) get a transmission advantage (drive) thanks to their non-Mendelian inheritance. Here I identify eight steps during the reproductive cycle that can be subverted by SGEs to thrive in natural populations. Even though only three steps occur during meiosis, most cases of segregation distortion are considered "meiotic drive sensu lato." As this is a source of unnecessary contradictions, I suggest always using the term "transmission ratio distortion" (TRD). Chromosomal SGEs (e.g., B chromosomes) exhibit almost all types of TRD. In plants, the best-studied type of TRD for B chromosomes occurs post-meiotically during male gametophyte maturation. However, in animals, the two main types are pre-meiotic and meiotic TRDs, in all cases associated with gonotaxis (i.e., a preference of B chromosomes for germ cells). Frequently, TRD drivers in genic SGEs (e.g., t-alleles and segregation distorters in Drosophila) are paralogous copies of genes from the standard genome, whereas their targets can be other genes or satellite DNA (satDNA). As B chromosomes are often rich in satDNA and contain paralogous copies of A chromosome genes, perhaps their drive mechanisms are similar to those of genic SGEs. So far, the only association between a B chromosome gene and TRD is the gene haplodizer in Nasonia vitripennis. The discovery of B-genes controlling B-drive in other species does not appear to be far off, but experimental crosses will be needed to simultaneously test the TRD of a given B chromosome and the expression of its genes.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 was often compared to seasonal influenza. We aimed to compare the outcome of hospitalized patients with cancer infected by SARS-CoV-2 or seasonal influenza including intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation and in-hospital mortality.

We analyzed claims data of patients with a lab-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 or seasonal influenza infection admitted to one of 85 hospitals of a German-wide hospital network between January 2016 and August 2021.

29,284 patients with COVID-19 and 7442 patients with seasonal influenza were included. Of these, 360 patients with seasonal influenza and 1625 patients with COVID-19 had any kind of cancer. Cancer patients with COVID-19 were more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit than cancer patients with seasonal influenza (29.4% vs 24.7%; OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.00-1.73 p < .05). No statistical significance was observed in the mechanical ventilation rate for cancer patients with COVID-19 compared to those with seasonal influenza (17.2% vs 13.6% OR 1.34, 95% CI 0.96-1.86 p = .09). 34.9% of cancer patients with COVID-19 and 17.9% with seasonal influenza died (OR 2.45, 95% CI 1.81-3.32 p < .01). Risk factors among cancer patients with COVID-19 or seasonal influenza for in-hospital mortality included the male gender, age, a higher Elixhauser comorbidity index and metastatic cancer.

Among cancer patients, SARS-CoV-2 was associated with a higher risk for in-hospital mortality than seasonal influenza. These findings underline the need of protective measurements to prevent an infection with either COVID-19 or seasonal influenza, especially in this high-risk population.

Among cancer patients, SARS-CoV-2 was associated with a higher risk for in-hospital mortality than seasonal influenza. These findings underline the need of protective measurements to prevent an infection with either COVID-19 or seasonal influenza, especially in this high-risk population.

Extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) are important pathogens causing community-acquired infections in humans, including bloodstream infections (BSIs), and may also colonize and infect animals. Our aim was to investigate associations between incidence rates (IRs) of BSIs caused by ExPEC and number of dogs and cats in communities in Calgary.

We used a well-characterized collection of blood isolates (n = 685) from Calgary, Alberta, Canada (2016). We used a combination of a seven-single-nucleotide-polymorphism quantitative PCR to type ExPEC into sequence types (STs). Calgary census data were used to estimate IRs per city community, as well as to investigate associations between number of companion animals per community, as obtained from licensing data, and IR of BSIs caused by each dominant ST.

From the 685 isolates available, ExPEC ST131 was most prevalent (21.3% of included isolates), followed by ST73 (13.7%), ST69 (8.2%), ST95 (6.7%), and ST1193 (5.3%), respectively. Incidence of BSIs caused by ExPECs among Calgary residents was 48.8 cases per 100,000 resident-years, whereas communities had on average of 1.7 companion animals per 10 residents. No association between the number of dogs and IR of BSIs caused by ExPECs was detected for any ST. Conversely, the incidence rate of BSIs caused by ST73 was 3.6 times higher (95%CI 1.3-9.99) for every increase of 1 cat per 10 habitants in communities.

Number of cats per habitant was positively associated with the incidence of BSIs caused by ExPEC ST73.

Number of cats per habitant was positively associated with the incidence of BSIs caused by ExPEC ST73.

To investigate the prevalence of neuro-functional disability and its determinants 12months after community-acquired bacterial meningitis (CABM) in adult patients.

In a prospective multicenter cohort study (COMBAT), all consecutive cases of CABM were enrolled and followed up for 12months. Neuro-functional disability at 12months was evaluated using a combination of the Glasgow Outcome Scale (functional disability), and the modified Rankin Disability Scale (physical disability). Factors associated with neuro-functional disability were identified by multivariate logistic regression.

Among 281 patients, 84 (29.9%) patients exhibited neuro-functional disability at 12months 79 (28.1%) with functional disability and 51 (18.1%) with physical disability. Overall, 6 patients (2.1%) died during the follow-up. The most common pathogen identified was Streptococcus pneumoniae (131/272, 48.2%); 77/268 patients (28.7%) had a physical disability at hospital discharge. Factors independently associated with 12-month neuro-functional disability were a pneumococcal meningitis (adjusted OR = 2.