Summary

BACKGROUND: The Elixhauser Comorbidity Index (ECI) is widely used, but its performance in homeless populations has not been evaluated. OBJECTIVES: Using a national sample of inpatients, this study compared homeless and nonhomeless inpatients on common clinical diagnoses and evaluated ECI performance in predicting mortality among homeless inpatients. RESEARCH DESIGN: A retrospective study was conducted using 2019 National Inpatient Sample (NIS) data, the largest publicly available all-payer inpatient health care database in the United States...

With advances in sequencing, individuals with clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) are increasingly being identified, making it essential to understand its prognostic implications. We conducted a systematic review of studies comparing the risk of clinical outcomes in individuals with and without CHIP. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE, and included original research reporting an outcome risk measure in individuals with CHIP, adjusted for the effect of age. From 3305 studies screened, we included 88 studies of 45 to 470960 participants...

Government responses to COVID-19 are among the most globally impactful events of the 21st century. The extent to which responses-such as school closures-were associated with changes in COVID-19 outcomes remains unsettled. Multiverse analyses offer a systematic approach to testing a large range of models. We used daily data on 16 government responses in 181 countries in 2020-2021, and 4 outcomes-cases, infections, COVID-19 deaths, and all-cause excess deaths-to construct 99,736 analytic models. Among those, 42% suggest outcomes improved following more stringent responses ("helpful")...

Freezing is a popular method of food preservation with multiple advantages. However, it may change the internal composition and quality of food. This study aimed to investigate the effect of modified starch on the storage stability of frozen raw noodles (FRNs) under refrigerated storage conditions. Oxidized starch (OS), a modified starch, is widely used in the food industry. In the present study, texture and cooking loss rate analyses showed that the hardness and chewiness of FRNs with added OS increased and the cooking loss rate decreased during the frozen storage process...

INTRODUCTION: Childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD) is a heterogeneous group of mostly chronic respiratory disorders. Assessment of health-related quality of life (HrQoL) in chILD has become increasingly important in clinical care and research. The aim of this study was to assess differences between patient-reported (self) and caregiver-reported (proxy) HrQoL scores. METHODS: This study used data obtained from the chILD-EU Register. After inclusion (baseline), the patient's health status was followed up at predefined study visits...

Chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection induces brain-resident CD8+ T cells (bTr), but the protective functions and differentiation cues of these cells remain undefined. Here, we used a mouse model of latent infection by T. gondii leading to effective CD8+ T cell-mediated parasite control. Thanks to antibody depletion approaches, we found that peripheral circulating CD8+ T cells are dispensable for brain parasite control during chronic stage, indicating that CD8+ bTr are able to prevent brain parasite reactivation...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this scoping review is to review the research evidence regarding the impact of perinatal maternal stress on the maternal and infant gut and human milk microbiomes. INTRODUCTION: Perinatal stress which refers to psychological stress experienced by individuals during pregnancy and the postpartum period is emerging as a public health concern. Early exposure of infants to perinatal maternal stress can potentially lead to metabolic, immune, and neurobehavioral disorders that extend into adulthood...

Chromosomal abnormalities are associated with a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations, one of the more commonly observed of which is epilepsy. The frequency, severity, and type of epileptic seizures vary according to the macro- and microrearrangements present. Even within a single chromosomal anomaly, we most often deal with a phenotypic spectrum. The aim of the study was to look for chromosomal rearrangements with a characteristic electroencephalographic pattern. Only a few disorders have peculiar electroclinical abnormalities: 1p36, 4p16, 6q terminal or trisomy 12p, Angelman syndrome, inv dup 15, 15q13...

Data harmonization involves combining data from multiple independent sources and processing the data to produce one uniform dataset. Merging separate genotypes or whole-genome sequencing datasets has been proposed as a strategy to increase the statistical power of association tests by increasing the effective sample size. However, data harmonization is not a widely adopted strategy due to the difficulties with merging data (including confounding produced by batch effects and population stratification). Detailed data harmonization protocols are scarce and are often conflicting...

BACKGROUND: An elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in peripheral blood is an independent prognostic indicator of various cancers. AIMS: In this study, we aimed to investigate the prognostic relevance of the intratumoral immune cell balance in gastric cancer. METHODS AND RESULTS: The study included 82 patients who underwent curative resection for gastric cancer. The intratumoral cluster of differentiation (CD) 15- and CD8-positive cells were evaluated using immunohistochemical staining...

BACKGROUND: Migraine is a common and burdensome neurological disorder. The causal relationship between sedentary behaviours (SBs) and migraine remains instinct. We aimed to evaluate the roles of SBs including watching TV, using computer and driving in the risk of migraine. METHODS: We conducted a univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization (MR) study based on summary datasets of large genome-wide association studies. The inverse variance weighted method was utilized as the primary analytical tool...

Cyclotriphosphazene (CP) is a cyclic inorganic compound with the chemical formula (NPCl2)3. This unique molecule consists of a six-membered ring composed of alternating nitrogen and phosphorus atoms, each bonded to two chlorine atoms. CP exhibits remarkable versatility and significance in the realm of materials chemistry due to its easy functionalization via facile nucleophilic substitution reactions in mild conditions as well as intriguing properties of resultant final CP-based molecules or polymers. CP has been served as an important building block for numerous functional materials...

This observational study investigated the effects of sleep position and sleep state on short apneas and periodic breathing in hospitalized preterm infants longitudinally, in relation to postmenstrual age. Preterm infants (25-31 weeks gestation, n = 29) were studied fortnightly after birth until discharge, in prone and supine positions, and in quiet sleep and active sleep. The percentage of time spent in each sleep state (percentage of time in quiet sleep and percentage of time in active sleep), percentage of total sleep time spent in short apneas and periodic breathing, respectively, the percentage of falls from baseline in heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation and cerebral tissue oxygenation index during short apneas and periodic breathing, and the associated percentage of total sleep time with systemic (arterial oxygen saturation < 90%) and cerebral hypoxia (cerebral tissue oxygenation index < 55%) were analysed using a linear mixed model...

BACKGROUND: Metformin has been used in the management of diabetes for decades. It is an effective, low-cost intervention with a well-established safety profile. Emerging evidence suggests that metformin targets a number of pathways that lead to chronic kidney damage, and long-term use may, therefore, slow the rate of kidney function decline and chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect of metformin therapy on kidney function decline in patients with CKD with or without diabetes mellitus and assess the safety and dose tolerability in this population...

OBJECTIVE: Prior studies have examined chronic conditions in older adults with prevalent epilepsy, but rarely among those with incident epilepsy. Identifying the chronic conditions with which older adults present at epilepsy incidence assists with the evaluation of disease burden in this patient population and informs coordinated care development. The aim of this study was to identify preexisting chronic conditions with excess prevalence in older adults with incident epilepsy compared to those without...

BACKGROUND: Mental health problems contribute significantly to the overall disease burden worldwide and are major causes of disability, suicide, and ischaemic heart disease. People with bipolar disorder report lower levels of physical activity than the general population, and are at greater risk of chronic health conditions including cardiovascular disease and obesity. These contribute to poor health outcomes. Physical activity has the potential to improve quality of life and physical and mental well-being...

IMPORTANCE: General-domain large language models may be able to perform risk stratification and predict postoperative outcome measures using a description of the procedure and a patient's electronic health record notes. OBJECTIVE: To examine predictive performance on 8 different tasks: prediction of American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status (ASA-PS), hospital admission, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, unplanned admission, hospital mortality, postanesthesia care unit (PACU) phase 1 duration, hospital duration, and ICU duration...

Neuroinflammation is being increasingly recognized as a vital factor in the development of various neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS), an outer membrane component of gram-negative bacteria, can trigger innate immune responses, resulting in neuroinflammation and subsequent cognitive deficits. The expression of glutamate receptors (GluRs) on glial cells can induce glial activation. Therefore, we hypothesized that repeated LPS exposure can increase GluR levels, promoting microglial activation and ultimately affecting synaptic plasticity and cognitive function...

Hypercholesterolemia raises the risk for cardiovascular complications and overall health. Hypercholesterolemia is common, affecting 10% of the general population of the US, and heritable. Most individuals with hypercholesterolemia have a polygenic predisposition to the condition. Previously we identified a quantitative trait locus, Tachol1, linked to hypercholesterolemia on mouse chromosome 1 (Chr1) in a cross between C57BL/6J (B6) and TALLYHO/JngJ (TH) mice, a polygenic model for human obesity, type 2 diabetes and hyperlipidemia...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which nephrology journals recommend and require reporting guideline adherence and clinical trial registration. BACKGROUND: Despite a rising disease burden, research published on chronic kidney disease (CKD) and the field of nephrology has failed to keep pace and is limited. To improve the quality of research in the field of nephrology, reporting guidelines have been developed to minimize such deficits in research quality. However, the extent to which nephrology journals require and use reporting guidelines in addition to clinical trial registration is unknown...